Tony Lavis,
Wrong again ! That is a picture of a stainless steel pipe with a T-piece & a nipple & a bleed screw.
Actually it reminds of the Rudd/Gillard Governments. Polished on the outside but hollow on the inside & although you can see the light at the end of the pipe you still can't see anything because it's aimed at the sky !

Dear Ludwig,

In an average conversation on your beach it would be perfectly okay to refer to a picture of a pipe as a pipe. But this is a thread on 'Truth'.

Therefore it it perfectly appropriate to assert that a picture of a pipe is not truthfully a pipe but a representation of one.

And if one values truth then one would of course accept this assertion as fact, unless the midday sun had something to do with it. :)

Csteele, this IS indeed fun!

You say:

<< In an average conversation on your beach it would be perfectly okay to refer to a picture of a pipe as a pipe. But this is a thread on 'Truth'. >>

Oow, I must correct myself. You didn’t say that at all; you WROTE it! Hmm, I presume you can technically call typing something on a keyboard; writing! ( :>? [Wow, one has to be super-careful on this thread!]

This is indeed a fundamental point. What you are presumably saying is that there is often a difference between what we take as the truth in our everyday lives and what is technically the truth.

Well, I would put it to you that if something is generally accepted as the truth by the vast majority of people, but this actually differs from the technical truth, then perhaps the majority opinion should prevail….at least some of the time.

Example: Speed limits. Road safety has been one of my main subjects on OLO. One of my big gripes is that the speed limits, along with all manner of other road rules, are not policed at face value. What is true in technical terms is not true in the real world.

The road I have just driven on had an 80kmh speed limit. That’s the hard and fast truth, in technical terms. But in the real world, you are most unlikely to get booked unless you are doing ?8 or more over, and just about everyone does a few ks over. I let my speed actually slip just below 80 a couple of times, at which points the car behind me came up very close and demonstrated intolerance at my slow driving!!

In the real world, the speed limits are NOT what the signs say they are. The technical truth is false in practical terms! And the practical truth is the truth that counts in this instance.

continued

In an average conversation, one would look at Magritte’s pipe and have absolutely no hesitation in calling it a pipe. And in all probability those also looking at it would have no hesitation in agreeing. Only after being told what the title; ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’ means, would they see that it could be interpreted as not being a pipe.

So…. if one values the absolute technical truth, and wants to make sure that they never say or assert anything that is not technically true, then they’d soon go mad…. if they weren’t already!!

Multiple truths can exist regarding just the same thing… if you change the parameters. As I said in an earlier post:

This IS a pipe…

and a picture of a pipe….

and a computer image of a pipe…

and a computer image of a picture of a pipe.

Ludwig,

3 out of 4 ain't bad.

...it's not a pipe.

Dear Ludwig,

The speed of light is 299,792,458 metres per second. For all practical purposes it is rounded out to 300,000,000 but technically the former matters as it is involved in setting a standard with the metre and the second.

The truth is it can never be 299,792,459 metres per second much less 300,000,000. We can never call the majority of those who round the figure up for ease correct or truthful about the speed of light, just human.

There are not multiple truths as you assert just plenty of close approximations that suffice as truths to make life easier until something absolute is required.

This thread is about the absolute truth therefore your pipe is not a pipe.

Dear Poirot,

Lol. Quite impish I must say. I think you are becoming a pipette.