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Counselling Connections Across Australia

ThE FOuR TIERS OF TRuTh

Here is where Russian babushka dolls come in. This model The larger tiers of truth set the context for the smaller tiers, and
suggests that there are four tiers of truth that apply to different the truth of the smaller tiers are subject to the truth of the larger
realms of reality and are appraised differently. Like these tiers. Each tier of truth is appraised differently and concerns a
dolls, these tiers are “nested” inside each other and address different aspect of our reality.
increasing smaller realms of reality.

Divine Truth Appraised by:
all reality
Revelation

Objective truth
the cosmos engagement
the physical world

intersubjective truth
human society social discourse
our social world

subjective truth
our intrapsychic objective
internal world self-awareness

The first tier is Divine Truth with a capital T. Divine Truth refers to as “brute facts”. We know this truth of the physical world
all who God is, all that God says and does, and the reality of the through empirical observation. The scientific method claims to
cosmos that God has created. It asserts that all that God is and be a reliable method of empirical observation that can give us
all that God has created is truly real, and has a true reality to it. an accurate knowledge of the reality of the physical world. The
result is objective scientific truth.
Only God can comprehend fully all that Divine Truth
encompasses. Divine Truth is known through revelation. We We do not merely appraise this objective truth through empirical
cannot know or discover God’s truth through any actions on scientific observation, however. Rather, we appraise it through
our part, either through empirical discovery or through logical engagement. As Wittgenstein (1974:22-23) expressed it, “We
analysis based on the application of reason. We can only know develop world-pictures through our experiences, and then
fragments of Divine Truth through Revelation. Revelation occurs operate on the basis of those world-pictures, which are in effect
when we observe God’s Works and we receive God’s Word, simplified conceptual models of our world. The adequacy of those
where God’s Word interprets the significance and meaning of models are confirmed or disconfirmed by our experience.” We
God’s Works. We are dependent upon God to reveal his Truth to develop working hypotheses regarding the nature of the world
us. God does so at God’s discretion. we live in. We reality-test those hypotheses through acting on
the basis of the hypothesis, and then waiting to see if the results
Hence, Divine Truth cannot be verified or proven, and it is or our action in the world is consistent with the hypothesis. If it
not subject to proof. This means that our confidence in the is consistent, it builds confidence that the way we are appraising
truthfulness of Divine Truth rests on the presupposition that God the world is accurate, and we can act with confidence.
is not a Liar. Like the other family members are subject to the
authority of the father, and the other dolls are contained within Third tier is the intersubjective truth of social phenomena. It is
the father doll, the other three tiers of truth are all subject to and represented by the son babushka doll. The world of every-day
encompassed by God’s Divine Truth. life is a social world that I share with others. As Berger and
Luckman (1966:37) expressed it:
The second tier is the objective truth of the cosmos, the external
reality of the physical world that we live in. It is represented by the The reality of everyday life further presents itself to me as an
wife babushka doll. The factual reality of the cosmos confronts intersubjective world, a world that I share with others. Existence
us with its own uncompromising durable external objective in the world of everyday life involves constant interaction and
existence, in the form of what Searle (1995:28-29) described communication with other people, who have a perspective on

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Edition 12 November 2020