TRUTH, LIES, AND WONDERING

The expectation of knowing ''truth'' leads to at least 3 ''tongues'' o r ways of considering both truth and lies. The rooted tongue reflects the correspondence view and involves the ''lie of authority.'' The unr ooted tongue reflects the coherence view and involves the ''lie of rel ational totality.'' The authors propose that these 2 kinds of lies occ ur when one gets ''tongue-tied'' in the face of experience that threat ens one's capacity for accommodation and for further wondering. The au thors describe a 3rd tongue, the dialectical, which considers the ''li e'' as a given of any knowledge and thereby supports ongoing openness to ''not knowing.'' An Isak Dinesen short story serves as the fulcrum for discussion.