ABSTRACT
The pursuit of truth is universal; so is the demand for evidence. But the method or system whereby truth is recognized, obtained, and transmitted is not. It is important to distinguish “the will to truth” and “the truth claim”—the specific manners wherein a statement or a claim is made of a “truth.” The will to truth is a universal human desire and value. But how one makes a truth claim and recognizes or accepts its validity is commonly determined by one’s system of intelligibility, which is itself a product of cultural, social, and historical factors—language, discourse, and power structure. What constitutes a truth-claim and how a truth claim is arrived at varies with the system of intelligibility—a set of rules for making sense one adopts. To make sense of a truth claim, whether imagined or empirical, seen or reported orally or textually, one evokes a rule of intelligibility—causality, customary practice, or a presumed validity—a value, a religious doctrine, a philosophical premise, or even an image. A system of intelligibility provides axiomatic assumptions for understanding or interpretation. Hermeneutics, whether applied to the study of text or understanding itself, involves the mapping of the system of intelligibility.
