Almost-True

There are many ways for something to be almost-true. Recently, Stephen Colbert introduced the world to the new word: "truthiness." Scientists deal in prototruths, where science uses the "scientific method" to continually refine our knowledge base (in this case we don't expect facts to be proved entirely false, but we do expect to find out why things are the way that they seem to be).

During the runup to the 2008 election, there were sites dedicated to indicating how true the candidate's statements were.

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Types/Categories

1. Mostly True: There is more truth in the statement than falsehood, at least until you start deconstructing (then all bets are off). (The Earth is spherical in shape. The Round Diet is the best for you. Christians and Muslims are religious people.)

2. Narrowly True: The truth is contingent, or would usually be considered that way. (The Earth is flat. Eating is good for you. Washington is broken.)

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Examples

The real Darth Vader would never get on his tricycle without his lime-green popsicle.

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Nice teeth.

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Me too.

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At least that corroborated the story he heard on Mother's Day.

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Links

For an almost-fair, and almost-balanced almost-view of election issues:

Almost-True	Comment
www.politifact.com	Fact checking - find the level of almost-truthiness.
blog.washingtonpost.com	Fact checking - find the level of almost-truthiness.

 

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