Truth and utility

1. Consider the following proposition: “Cats eat mice.” How we can make more explicit the prediction inherent in that proposition? “If you see a cat and a mouse together, then you’re likely to see the cat chase and try to eat the mouse.” That conversion makes the proposition (i.e., the belief) “pay rent,” yes. But it doesn’t convert truth to utility—consider here the classic discussion with Jason about whether truth is ultimately just utility. After all, you may not care one way or another what happens when you see a cat and a mouse together. Utility only comes into play once you try to use the (purported) truth of the proposition that cats eat mice.
2. We must of course distinguish between speaking truthfully and speaking usefully.
3. People who are concerned above all with what’s useful for them in the short term—i.e., selfish, hedonistic people—are the least concerned with truth.
4. If you read the classics in multiple languages, write for posterity, and travel the world, then you’re more likely to find the truth than a monoglot who stays in one place and debates about current events. More abstractly: Truth is perspective-neutral. The people who are the most truth-oriented are those who take into account the widest variety of perspectives (e.g., different languages, different eras).
5. How we categorize is of course a matter of utility, and thus every proposition, no matter how supposedly wertfrei, will have snuck into it at least one utility-related implication. For example, consider the following proposition: “Lemons have seeds.” The word “lemon,” which is mutually exclusive with, say, the word “orange,” implies that there’s some kind of claimed utility difference between the range of phenomena 🍋 and the range of phenomena 🍊—a different kind of being may well not see the point in differentiating the two. That notwithstanding, though: Truth can be nevertheless untangled from utility because, e.g., the proposition “lemons have seeds” is true whether anybody cares about the indifference range 🍋 or not.
6. That is: The proposition “lemons have seeds” is the prediction that if you open a lemon, then you’ll find seeds. It’s a separate question whether anybody would care or not.
7. Some people check utility on a shorter timescale, and other people check utility on a longer timescale. Personally, I’m comfortable following a path of inquiry for months or even years without asking what I’m going to get out of it.
8. Purported truth: (a) A cat living in your house as the cause, and (b) the mice living in your house getting killed as the effect. Consider next the same purported truth except mixed with purported utility: (a) A cat living in your house as the means, and (b) the mice living in your house getting killed as the ends. The only difference here is between cause and effect and means and ends. If you don’t care whether there are mice in your house or not, then the proposition “cats eat mice” is a useless truth. But if you do care, and you want the mice gone, then that same proposition goes from a mere understanding of perspective-neutral cause and effect to cause-as-means, effect-as-ends.