Fourth Truism

Like some of you, I am not completely sold on Lynch's fourth truism, "truth is worth caring about for its own sake." I suppose I currently hold the view that Lynch describes as cynical on p. 2 of the introduction: that truth is valuable only as a way to achieve a desired result. To me, idealist that I am, the desired result for the majority of humanity is improvement: of technology, living conditions, and whatnot. Our society is constantly striving to discover new truths that will improve our understanding of the world and hopefully lead us to this improvement. There are others, however, who manipulate truth to achieve more selfish outcomes. The attainment of truth can give one leverage over those who do not really know the truth, as Lynch points out often happens in politics. Either way, I have difficulty following Lynch's assertion on p. 19 that truth matters because it is good, and thus is worth caring about. To me, truth is worth caring about because it enhances understanding. It will be interesting to see whether or not Lynch successfully supports his assertion that truth matters for its own sake, because I have a really hard time believing it to be true.