I'm reading some book on the topic of truths in the Descartes method, and then mentions deduction and induction. Of course, this means i'll be thinking about it, as it can only tickle and tantalize me so far before i give in. The question on the table then is, "What are the absolute truths?" Absolute means that they are not inductive, or even deductive based on other absolutes.
Personally, i've always felt that the first thing any dicipline or methodolgy does is define it's area. Only a moron would say that Science can explain everything, or that humans can understand everything, or that it is obvious to everyone that G-d exists. First thing in making a statement, is to know where or how that statement applies, hence the dicipline or methodology.
Defining areas is quite simple. Though, i am a bit afraid to give examples as each may spur it's own thread. On second thought...
Further, if a person thinks he knows everything (as opposed to me who actually does know everything), he is generally rejected even on minutia that one would easily accept from anyone else. However, when a person says what things they don't know, people tend to trust them more on what they say that they do know. Simply, people are trusted when they accept that facts can exist whether they comprehend them or not.
With that said, i think three statements can be made.
1) Statements can be made.
2) Deduction is truthful.
3) It cannot be proven that everything can be proven.
The first and second statements must be true, as if they weren't, they would contradict themselves. The first merely by existing, for how could it have been made if it can't be made? The second, can only be disproven with deduction, that is, "since one doesn't know that, it therefore cannot be said."
The third statement is merely a defintion. By trying to prove things, we realize that not everything can be proven. Similarly, one cannot say the universe is in fact a universe and not a multiverse, and we are inside the universe. One would have to be outside it to what else may be there. Here, in order to prove things, we are defining an area known as the provable, thus we cannot know that everything falls under this realm.