A Squire’s Trial

- No, I'm not talking about opinions, I'm talking about
TRUTH. Could two contradictory opinions be true at the same
time?
- I guess not, if you say it like that.
- Good. And what, would you say, is the opposite of truth?
- Falsehood, lies, illusion.
- On any given topic, can there be more than one falsehood,
more than one lie?
- There could be any number of falsehoods, you could make
up anything you want, really.
- And all those lies, or as you said, all those "made up" ideas,
they could be quite different from each other, couldn't they?
But what do all of these false notions have in common?
- Hmm, I don't know... let me think. I guess none of them
line up with reality.
- Indeed, but that's a given, since if they did, they would be
truths. But they have something else in common, something
more basic. Let me help you: when a liar tells you falsehood,
what is he trying to achieve?
- He's trying to deceive me, to convince me that what he is
saying is true...
- Exactly. Does he warn you that he's lying?
- No, of course not, then it wouldn't be a falsehood, would it?
Oh, I see. All lies are the same in that they pretend to be true.
- I see you understand now, well done. So would you agree
that in this world, while there's one truth, countless lies are
scrambling to usurp it and pretend to be the real deal?
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