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L. S. K.

JAMA. 1970;214(9):1697-1698.

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In an editorial elsewhere in this issue we use the phrase "more true." Perhaps some purist will object to this phraseology, on the grounds that truth, like "round" or "square," does not admit of comparison. Some would even include the term "honest" along with these. But we would take a very strong stand to combat this pseudopurism and to defend the tentative and comparative nature of truth.

We can easily dispose of the mathematically oriented terms like "round" or "straight." The mathematician does not speak of "more" or "less" round, for he deals entirely in arbitrary terms depending on definition, and in the pure realm of definition, a conceptual entity either is or is not round. But these are purely ideal conceptions and have no counterpart in the real sensory world. Nothing made by man is "round" or "straight." At best, any man-made object merely approximates an ideal definition. Ordinary . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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