last updated: 12/14/2006
ON THE REALITY OF SELF-EVIDENT TRUTH
Consider the statement "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." In order to accurately decipher this statement one must entertain a proper understanding of the term self-evident. In order to realize a proper understanding of the term self-evident one must also recognize to whom the statement is evident.
The dictionary or textbook definition of self-evident is "evident in itself without proof or reasoning." This definition however is not tenable when subjected to critical examination. The truth that "all men are created equal" is deemed self-evident by the Declaration’s Signers, but can that term, self-evident, be defined as "evident in itself without proof or reasoning?" I think not. To hold a truth to be "evident in itself without proof or reasoning" is tantamount to saying that the truth is an unverified, unreasoned, axiomatic proposition. For the Signers to set forth the enumerated truths as unverified, unreasoned, axiomatic propositions would be the equivalent of evoking the truths as mere suppositions in the guise of reality. Had the Signers of the Declaration only supposed that "all men are created equal" they could not, in good conscious, have held it to be a truth. To the contrary, the Signers use of the term self-evident in the Declaration is an adjective expression of an attribute in support of the stated truths. The intent of the Signers is certain, the realities of Nature the Signers set forth as truths are held to be self-evident in that they are clear to the understanding of the Signers themselves. It is the Signers that attest to this reality. A reality they professed as evident to their individual conscious selves.
Furthermore, if self-evident truth is defined as truth that is "evident in itself without proof or reasoning," the truth does not proceed from the rational examination of the pertinent facts or concepts and therefore is not the product of an intellect’s reason. The truth of such concepts as Mankind’s equality and Endowed Rights can only be evident to a rational intellect and hence does not exist absent a rational intellect. Those truths which were asserted by the Signers as evident to the Signers (clear to their individual conscious selves) must have arisen from such facts and concepts that resided with their rational intellects. In professing the enumerated truths as self-evident, the Signers attested to the fact that the enumerated truths conformed to their conscious understanding of reality.
Therefore, in order to gain a viable understanding of the Signers’ intent for the term self-evident as utilized in the Declaration of Independence, a proper definition of self-evident must be employed. A literal interpretation of the compound word self-evident provides the most obvious clarification, i.e., "that which is evident to the individual conscious self." Viewed from this perspective, the perspective of an individual human being, truth which is deemed self-evident is deemed evident (clear) to the understanding of one’s self. The truths enumerated in the Declaration of Independence are self-evident not only because the Signers understood them to be self-evident but also because the natural intellectual process utilized by any individual member of the human race (one of Mankind’s many selves) clearly leads to the conclusion of their truth.
Based on the above elementary definition of self-evident, I beg to differ with the argument advanced by certain critics of the Declaration of Independence that, ". . . the truths they (the founders) held to be self-evident are scarcely self-evident . . . and we are starting with the presupposition that (the truths are self-evident)." In response to these criticisms consider the following.
The truth of one’s being becomes evident to one’s self by virtue of the individual rational intellect and as such it is the individual rational intellect that mediates the factual evidence affirming the existence of the Life possessing self; or as Descartes so aptly stated "I think therefore I am," (a truth clear to the understanding of one’s conscious self). In order to arrive at this conclusion, Descartes assumed that all mental input was deception and therewith reasoned that the only way he could in fact be deceived was as a thinking thing. Hence, even if every input was in fact deception, to be deceived Descartes still must be a thinking thing.
Although some interpret Descartes’ argument as confirming an exclusively mental state of existence, that thing (mind or intellect) that does the thinking nevertheless requires a perspective from which to formulate thought. Therefore, the formulation of a thought, dream or imagined circumstance requires input. This input, whether designed to deceive or not, must be supplied by a world exterior to the world of the mind, by an extended reality in which the thinking thing (mind or intellect) is logged. Hence, it can be argued that Descartes’ self-evident proof of existence as a thinking thing must also encompass the state of affairs (reality) in which that thinking thing (reasoning mind) finds itself resident. The material nature of the temporal bodily abode in which our intellect resides becomes reality to the reasoning mind through the conceptual and perceptual formulation of self-evident truths concerning the design and substance of that physical abode. Therefore, the mental as well the physical being of each human, as deduced from Descartes’ assertion, attests to the shared reality of this natural mode of individual existence and as such it is the perspective from which the truth of mankind’s equal creation originates.
It is from the above-mentioned perspective, the perspective of our naturally ordered individual existence, that we as individual reasoning beings stand equal to all other individual reasoning beings. It is through each individual’s realization of a common creation that Mankind ascertains equality and not as a consequence of social contract. The evidence for the truth of Mankind’s equal creation lay in each being’s self-evident realization of the universal state of his or her individual existence. Intrinsically it is this self-evident truth of equal creation, manifest as an autonomous living force (vis viva), that endows the individual as a matter of course with the unalienable (non transferable) Right (quality of being that conforms to fact) of Life. This Right of Life inures to each individual rational intellect by way of the individual’s de facto embodiment of Life, a Right made evident as truth by virtue of that rational intellect’s effective creation; or, as Descartes might have said, "I exist therefore I am endowed with the Right to exist."
Are there truths evident to one’s self other than equal creation and the endowed Right of Life? Indeed there are. The self-evident truths of an endowed Right of Liberty and an endowed Right of the pursuit of Happiness are two obvious extensions of the rational being’s endowed Right of Life. Since the individual self is endowed by the very act of creation with the autonomous Right of individual existence (Life), as a necessary consequence thereof each individual being is also endowed with the autonomous Rights of Liberty (autonomy of individual action) and pursuit of Happiness (autonomy of individual quest for well being). Nevertheless, these endowed Rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness are not in and of themselves inviolable, hence to secure these Rights governments are formed. Governments provide the necessary framework for social contract between individuals and therewith furnish the individual with a means of protecting these endowed Rights from unwarranted infringement. Governments however are not the source of Mankind's endowed Rights. The origin of Mankind's endowed Rights, those Rights recognized as self-evident by the Signers, endures apparent through the continuing handiwork of Natures Supreme Creative Force.
The truth that we are created equal in our individuality and therewith endowed by our very being with the Rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness is most assuredly evident to one’s self (i.e., self-evident) for it originates from, and as such is part and parcel of our naturally ordered mode of individual existence. The intellect through reason confirms the truth of this self-evident state of individual being. It does not presuppose it.
January 2003
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