Truth

One mid November Monday morning at the local elementary school a space opened up for the position of "truth" advisor. Out of necessity to fill this vacant position I, the principle, begin the day by writing the "help wanted" advertisement for the local paper. Other than the normal education requirements, I have requested one thing from the candidates; they must be willing to help the students of this school to find the "truth." After completing the announcement, I sent it over to the newspaper to be published. By the following Monday I had received over 10 resumes for the position, all seeming to have lengthy backgrounds in philosophy. I narrowed my search down to two applicants, Anselm and Rene Descartes.

My first interview was with Anselm, the famed philosopher who wrote Proslogion. I began the meeting by informing Anselm of the requirements for the position and verifying his credentials. Next, I requested that Anselm explain to me why he believes he would be the best individual to teach the students the "truth." He replied as follows; "We cannot wish to arrive at any truth unless God welcomingly leads us to it. I will first show these children that to find "truth" we must first prove God's existence. We will conquer the notion of something greater than which nothing can be conceived. Then I will lead the students to realize that the something greater than which nothing can be conceived must necessarily exist in reality as well as in thought; otherwise it would in fact be possible to conceive something greater. Thusly we will arrive at the fact that God does exist. Once we have envisioned and understood this being known as God we will be led to the "truth" ." I thanked Anselm for his brief and to the point explanation for why he was the best candidate for the job. I then informed him that I believed I had all the information I needed and that I would be meeting with one other individual before I made my final decision, but that I would be in contact with him within the next few days.

My second interviewee, Rene Descartes arrived shortly after Anselm's departure. This individual had a strong knowledge of both philosophy and mathematics, and according to his resume he wrote extensively on both subjects. I began the interview quite the same as I had done with the first; I informed Descartes of the prerequisites for the arrangement and confirmed his qualifications. I then invited Descartes to clarify for me what he believed would be the best way to teach the students the "truth." His reply was; "We must begin with a clean slate. I will need to show these children that they will need to start by questioning everything they know or have been taught up to this point. If these students can find any particular fact about the world under such hash scrutiny,