Truth
Postmodern saying: There is no truth, there are only versions.
Related: authenticity - Cinéma vérité - fact - realism - reality - relativism - philosophy - tautology - verisimilitude
Truth (1870) - Jules Joseph Lefebvre
Related by word: true crime
“‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things’” (Lewis Carroll).
Definition
Common dictionary definitions of truth include some form of accord with facts. There is, however, no single definition of truth about which scholars agree. Numerous theories of truth have been proposed and continue to be widely debated. Standing beside the issue of definition are many other issues about which scholars have various views. What sorts of things can properly be called true or false? What tests can establish a claim as being true? How do we know something to be true? Which truths, if any, are subjective, relative, objective, or absolute? --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth [Apr 2006]
Lie
A lie is an untruthful statement made to someone else with the intention to deceive. To lie is to say something one believes to be false with the intention that it be taken for the truth by someone else.
A lie involves the use of conventional truthbearers, (i.e., statements in words or symbols) and not natural signs. Intentional deceit involving natural signs, such as wearing a wig, shamming a limp, or wearing a fake arm cast, is not usually classed as "lying", but as "deception".
A true statement may be a lie. If the person who makes the true statement genuinely believes it to be false, and makes the statement with the intention that his audience believe it to be true, then this is a lie. When a person lies he or she is intentionally untruthful, but he or she is not necessarily making an untrue statement. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie [Feb 2007]