Concreteness of Truth

One of the basic properties of truth. Lenin said: “One of the basic principles of dialectics is that there is no such thing as abstract truth, truth is always concrete.”

The concreteness of truth is a reflection of the concreteness of objective things. Marx said that “The concrete concept is concrete because it is a synthesis of many definitions, thus representing the unity of diverse aspects.” Objective things are all concrete whole with various definitions, so truth, as the understanding consistent with objective things, is a complete and comprehensive understanding of diversity and unity. Lenin said that truth consists of phenomena, the sum of all aspects of reality and their (mutual) relationships. Truth is comprehensive. Understanding of only one aspect of a thing is partial, and cannot be called truth considering the whole and all aspects of the thing. The concreteness of truth requires us to try our best to grasp all aspects and connections of the object when we try to understand it. Although we cannot fully achieve this, the requirement of comprehensiveness can prevent mistakes and rigidities. As concrete unities of diverse aspects, objective things have certain particularity to be distinguished from all other things. Truth is a correct reflection of certain objects under certain conditions, so it cannot be applied to other conditions or other objects at will. The truth to reflect certain objects under certain conditions, if applied to other conditions or objects, will no longer be truth. The concreteness of truth requires us to make a concrete analysis of specific issues and pay attention to the applicable objects and conditions of every scientific theory and conclusion. Truth cannot be arbitrarily used as an abstract dogma coming out of thin air. Lenin pointed out that “the very gist, the living soul, of Marxism, is a concrete analysis of a concrete situation”.