Both Frankfurt and Miller find truth to be extremely important in today's world. They do have a few differences, however. Frankfurt says that it is almost impossible for a community to function without truth. If a community is being built and there are no universal truths in that community (like a one dollar bill is equal to one dollar, or killing people is against the law, etc. ) there will be pure chaos. I suppose Frankfurt defines truth as a universal thing that is important to agree on, for lack of a better statement.
Miller, on the other hand, talks about people being "truthful." She is under the impression that an autobiography should be all completely true. But, in a definition of an autobiography in her story, it says "the autobiographical pact is the engagement that an author takes to narrate his life directly...in a spirit of truth." She goes on to study the "spirit" of truth, and how there can not be a spirit of truth, but only truth, and that's all that matters. I guess I would say that Miller describes truth as being a pure truth, with no effort or sign of falsity coming from the author.
Posted by kblax23 on December 8, 2008
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