Frankfurt’s opinion of what makes truth is quite obvious. He believes it is something outside of human experiences (does not change from person to person depending on their experience or personal beliefs). Truth is fact, and reality, and can be observed and used to create expectations for the future. Nancy Miller’s views on truth is a little less easy to spot. She lays out many opinions about what truth is and how autobiographies should be created. She talks about “truthiness” and how memoirs contain a certain amount of truth without fact....but nonetheless breaks the “autobiographical pact” between author and reader that when they stamp “true story” on the cover, it must be true. She also quotes Oz in his disclaimer for the readers to ask about themselves instead of wondering if the events on the page happened to the author. Basically saying that it doesn’t matter what actually happened so long as you learn from it. Miller explores the genealogy and DNA dispute and makes the statement that to focus only on the biological truths that a family tree and DNA place on us, and disregard family narratives and memories that may not be entirely true, is to lose a huge portion of who you could be. This is kind of a weird statement, but she is saying that your perception of yourself is caused by experience and interactions, not just biological. Therefore your truth is not just biological or a given or fact, but is made up of experience.
Posted by goafr on November 30, 2008
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