1. A doctrine that everything in the world has been designed by God to be of service to man.
2. The theory or study of purposiveness in nature: characteristically, certain phenomena seem to be best explained not by means of prior causes, but by ends or aims, intentions or purposes. Teleological explanation seems typical of living or organic things - plants, animals, people.
(Antony Flew: A Dictionary of Philosophy, St. Martin's Press 1979)

From the Greek word for goal, task, completion, or perfection. Teleological explanations attempt to account for things and features by appeal to their contribution to optimal states, or the normal functioning, or the attainment of goals, of wholes or systems they belong to.
(Ted Honderich: The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press 1995)

This is Kant's expression for the object considered as it is independently of its cognitive relation to the human mind. It is contrasted with the object as it appears, or phenomenon, which is the object qua given to the mind in accordance with its sensible forms. Although Kant denies that we can know the thing-in-itself, he maintains that we must think of it as the ground of appearance.

see also Noumenon.

Thinking is the key term in my philosophy. Since there are various shades of meaning and a multitude of different usages, a simple glossary entry would have been too long. Therefore I dedicate several web pages to an elaborate definition of 'thinking', drawn from different sources.

My theory of thinking can be found throughout most of my Essays. Propaedeutic of a Metaphysics of Thought is the most systematic and detailed metaphysical account of thinking. For a short introduction to my philosophy, see Introduction page on this web site.

Hitherto, philosophers and scientists as well have only studied the material structure of thinking, its functions, capacities, faculties, that is, thinking as causal process, as an interactive and intertwined process. But it is also necessary to make philosophical investigations into thinking from a totally different point of view. We need a Metaphysics of Thinking. The object of this metaphysics is thinking as such, thinking per se, or thinking insofar as it is thinking (Denken insofern es denkend ist)....That means, we are not interested in the outcome of the thought, in its effects and processes, but what thought is as such in its innermost primary essence, what its roots and apriority is. (see Essay Metaphysics of Thinking)

The connotation of the term absolute is derived from 19th century German idealism. Applied to thought, absolute thinking implies being free from subjectivity, empirical sources, emotional experience, rational thinking that is bound to sense perception, temporality, a dualism that splits the world into two irreconcilable substances - matter and mind - , and finally from the limited concepts of everyday thought. The enumeration is not final. The point is, that absolute or pure thought is more apt to understand the whole than our rational thought that is used to work with fragmentary knowledge only.

Form of thinking that is based on the cognitive process of abstraction, which is defined as:

Process by which allegedly we form concepts on the basis of experience or of other concepts. On being confronted with red things, each of which has many other properties, we abstract the redness and so form a concept of red. Empiricists like Lock use abstraction to help specify how we build up our concepts on the basis of experience.
(A.R. Lacey: A Dictionary of Philosophy, Routledge, 1986)

...leaving out, by not attending to, the apparently irrelevant distinguishing features of the several individuals falling within a class. All classification must involve some abstraction.
(Antony Flew: A Dictionary of Philosophy, St. Martin's Press 1979)

In contrast to synthetic or holistic thinking , analytic thinking is the idiosyncratic mode of thought in the Western World, especially since the dawn of science and scientific thinking in the Renaissance period. It is based on the cognitive process of analysis, which is defined as:

Generally, the process of separating a "thing" into its component parts or elementary qualities. The term is ubiquitous in all scientific disciplines, and hence the "thing" may be a mechanical, physical entity, a chemical or biological substance, a percept, an image, idea, emotion, etc.
(Arthur S. Reber: Dictionary of Psychology, Penguin 1985)

Apriori Thinking is synonymous with Absolute Thinking, both do not need a reference to experience or empiric data in order to posit true principles and laws. It is contrasted with Empirical Thinking and it sustains the philosophy of apriorism that holds that "... the mind is furnished with innate ideas and that there exists the possibility of genuine knowledge independent of experience."
(Antony Flew: A Dictionary of Philosophy, St. Martin's Press 1979)

C.G. Jung introduced the concept of collective unconscious into psychology in order to explain inter-cultural phenomena and humankind's ubiquitous symbolism in mythology. Similarly, I propose a "collective thinking" or "collective thought" that sustains the continuous existence and order of the world. We are normally not aware of the background state of collective thought, since our world is embedded in the individual daylight thinking. Nevertheless, the world we think to perceive and think to be existent outside of ourselves is only a projection of collective thinking. (see Essays World and Thought and Generative Mind)

Thinking based on common-sense. This is the natural and inborn way of thought, although the implicationns of what common-sense means may vary from culture to culture or even within the same culture. It has to do with sound rationality, conscience, moral and ethical standards and other socially imbued norms.

Thinking based on the cognitive process of conceptualization (see also Concept) or conception (the mental process of forming a concept). Conceptual thinking is similar to rational and analytic thinking in that it is an intrinsic characteristic of the structure of our mind. Language and thought are closely connected to each other through conceptual thought. A more detailed study of conceptual thinking can be found in Essay Nature and Development of Transrational Thinking.

In contrast to Abstract Thinking, Concrete Thinking deals with concrete entities of our world and not with concepts or ideas abstracted from real entities. Whenever we talk to each other by direct reference to "real-world objects" we apply concrete thinking. Concrete ideas are contrasted to universal ideas, analogous to individual objects within an abstract class.

In contrast to Egocentric Thinking, Cosmocentric Thinking extends to the world or the universe as whole when it comes to considering implications of past or consequences of future events. Everything is seen on a whole-scale basis, considered in relation to the "big picture". Cosmocentric Thinking revolves around the whole instead of only investigating parts or fragments independently. This form of thought is considered best for political leaders who need a vision or wide perspective in order to include all relevant factors and aspects into their decisions.

Critical Thinking does not mean skeptical but rather unbiased thinking. Similarly to Kant's critical philosophy, critical thought avoids both dogmatism and skepticism and tries to find a middle path that allows on one side to consider metaphysical principles as necessary constitutents of a holistic philosophy and on the other side to re-think these principles on a different level or from another perspective, and in the light of the latest insights in science, as well as in the light of the whole preceding development of mankind.

Thinking based on the philosophy of Dialectics, especially as described by Hegel and other Idealist philosphers. Dialectics is the process of thought that proceeds by contradiction and the reconciliation of contradiction, the overall pattern being one of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.

Hegel's dialectic inolves three steps:
(1) One or more concepts or categories are taken as fixed, sharply defined and distinct from each other. (Understanding)
(2) When we reflect on such categories, one or more contradictions emerge in them. (Dialectical or Negative Reason)
(3) The result of this dialectic is a new, higher category, which embraces the earlier categories and resolves the contradiction involved in them, (Speculation, Positive Reason). This new category is a 'unity of opposites'.
(Michael Inwood: A Hegel Dictionary, Blackwell, 1992)

In contrast to Cosmocentric Thinking, this form of thinking is restrained and bound to the activities of an individual or personality. Since humans are egocentric by nature, egocentric thought is predominant most of the time. It needs a volitional effort to overcome the centripetal force of egocentric thought and extend to a more comprehensive or holistic thinking.

Emotive Thinking is based on our experience, including sensations, emotions, feelings, etc. This thinking has a highly regulative function, insofar as it orders the sensations and perceptions of our experience. Since experience is tantamount to feeling, emotive thinking has the most important and biologically useful function of structuring the world we experience through our senses. However, since feeling is characterized as being subjective, experience and emotive thinking a fortiori is never pure or absolute but always relative and twisted by our preconceptions, prejudices, character, attitudes, views, social norms, cultural values, etc. (see Essay Emotive and Paranoetic Thinking)

Thinking based on empathy.

Thinking based on experience and empiric data acquired through our bodily senses. As contrasted to Absolute or Apriori Thinking , empirical thought draws heavily on the material provided by the body and therefore is liable to errors, illusions, prejudice, misconceptions, etc. More generally, it is the thinking implicit in the philosophy of empiricism, positivism, scientificism, physicalism or other similar views that emphasize the primacy of matter over mind.

Thinking in terms of functions or causal relationships. It is a subset of Scientific Thinking . Functional thought usually softpedals the form or structure of a system or object and focusses instead on the causal relationships and functional roles of the system components. In a narrower sense, functional thought neglects the internal structure of an object and only deals with the exterior expression of the object to the point of denying the relevance or even existence of internal factors and aspects. (see also behaviorism).

The Theory of Generative Thinking postulates that our Individual Mind produces subjective and objective concepts which constitute both our mental and physical world. We know the world only through our Individual Mind (Exonoesis) and therefore co-participate in establishing the reality we experience. Collective generative thinking produces a world that is real only for those who are committed to that collective belief-system. (see Essay Generative Mind)

Heuristic Thinking is an important faculty of our (creative) mind that is very resourceful when it comes to problem solving or soul-searching questions. It is a process of approximation starting with an initial pattern of thought and gradually assimilating to a target pattern that constitutes an insight into the subject matter at hand. The whole process leads to a holistic or interlaced knowledge. (see Essay Heuristic Thinking)

Holistic thinking refers to the endeavor of overcoming the natural limits of our referential knowledge by deliberately extending its scope of applicability. This can be accomplished easily by just overstepping the punctiliously demarcated boundary lines of referential knowledge by adopting the versatility and liberality of speculative thought. It also means having the stamina to venture into uncharted waters beyond present boundaries.
[This form of thinking] is not excluding or avoiding anything that is opposed to common or academic views, but by extending our thinking we integrate all the other different views into the infinite space of an all-encompassing holistic thinking, until we, all of a sudden, realize by a flash of enlightenment, that we have achieved a mode of thinking that embraces everything and rule out or dismiss nothing. This is true holistic thinking. (see Essay Nature and Development of Transrational Thinking)

Contrasted with Universal Thinking, Individual Thinking is the characteristic way of thinking of an individual human being. In other words, it is the thinking of Exonoesis or Individual Mind. However, individual thought is not a fixed limitation of our mind that cannot be transcended. By the process of de-individuation, it is possible to overcome our limited individuality and extend into the Universal Mind.

The thinking that is characteristic of the intellect or indicative of intellectual knowledge. An intellectual person has abiding interests in ideas, thinking, contemplation, reflection, creativity, and is devoted to matters of the mind. Academic scientists, for instance, apply intellectual thinking in a determinate way. I use this term sometimes along with rational or logical thinking in contrast to higher and unlimited forms of thought, such as transrational or holistic thinking.

Thinking based on the idea of intentionality, which is defined as follows:

The term derives from the medieval Latin intentio, a scholastic term for the ideas or representations of things formed by the mind. The term was revived in 1874 by Franz Brentano for 'the direction of the mind on an object'. Brentano's idea was that intentionality is the mark of the mental: all and only mental states are intentional. Beliefs, wishes, desires, hopes, and the like are therefore often called 'intentional states'.
(Ted Honderich: The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press 1995)

Generally, logical thinking is sound, rational thinking, according to valid logical rules, such as valid conclusions, deductions, etc. More specifically, it is thinking based on the rules and laws of thought posited by formal and philosophical logic. It is a very restricted form of thought, since it cannot handle paradoxes or alogical entities. It is basically thinking without contradicitons and logical errors. Synonym for discursive thinking.

It is used synonymously with Transrational Thinking (Paranoesis) or Pure Thinking:

The only way to eschew emotive thought and its illusory entanglements is by referring to noetic or pure thinking. Noetic thought is free from any emotive matter and therefore also delivered from the gross influence of the body.

Paranoetic Thinking is of little practical value, because its domain is not the material world or the everyday world, but the spiritual world of the One Mind. It is occupied with the whole not with singular things as the intellect is. Paranoetic Thinking surpasses the mere empirical applicability of the intellect, it goes beyond experience, beyond sensuousness, beyond emotionality, beyond corporeity, beyond materiality, beyond singularism.

see also Essay Paranoetic Knowledge, Glossary Entry 'Paranoetic Knowledge'.

Generally, the thinking as applied by a philosopher or thinker. It is the most general and abstract form of thinking. It is a form of synthetic or holistic thinking. More specifically, philosophical thinking is the thinking of a metaphysician or a proponent of a metaphysical system of thought. It might also be called a "meta-thinking" since it operates from a higher level than for instance scientific thinking, orrational thinking as such. Philosophers try to synthesize various aspects and embed them in a whole and complete system of thought. Furthermore, philosophers reflect on matters of thinking and mind itself and do not only use thinking.

Practical thinking is thinking directed at moral, ethical and other practical issues. It is also Empirical Thinking and Common-sense Thinking and is contrasted with Theoretical Thinking.

This is the thinking of the Universal Mind or Primary Mind (Hyponoesis). It produces the two aspects of Mind (Individual Minds) and Matter (World of physical objects). It is synonymous with Universal Thinking.

If [the Individual Mind] applies the method of transrational thinking, it will be able to transcend the limitations constraining secondary thinking and link up directly with the primary mind. A person thinking transrationally is not thinking within the bounds of the capacity of the brain, as rational thinking does, but the secondary mind thinks as the primary mind, it is one with the primary mind and therefore uses the unrestrained power of primary thinking.

The world is not a product of our individual thinking (which is arbitrary and does not have the necessity of the physical world), but of mankind's collective thought, the Primary Thinking of the Universe, that itself produces the individual or Secondary Thinking.

The activity of the primary mind, primary thinking, posits the forms of the secondary minds [Individual Minds]. And the thinking of the secondary minds posits the immediate forms of the material world in the same proportional manner.

Synonymous with absolute thinking, apriori thinking or paranoetic thinking. It is based on Pure Reason, which is defined as:

... a completely distinct cognition in which the understanding is separated from the senses and imagination.
(Howard Caygill: A Kant Dictionary, Blackwell 1995)

Pure Thinking operates independently of external stimuli (senses) as material or objects for thinking. It has its own objects in itself: mind and thoughts, the thinking process per se.

Thinking based on the principles of rationality or rationalism, the latter being defined as:

The characteristics of... rationalism are: (a) the belief that it is possible to obtain by reason alone a knowledge of the nature of what exists; (b) the view that knowledge forms a single system, which (c) is deductive in character; and (d) the belief that everything is explicable, that is, that everything can in principle be brought under the single system.
(Antony Flew: A Dictionary of Philosophy, St. Martin's Press 1979)

Sometimes used synonymously with discursive or logical thinking, conceptual and intellectual thinking .

Thinking based on the scientific outlook of reductionism, which is defined as:

Tendency to reduce certain notions, whether everyday ones, like physical object, or theoretical ones in science, like electron, to allegedly simpler or more basic notins, or more empirically accessible ones.
(A.R. Lacey: A Dictionary of Philosophy, Routledge, 1986)

A philosophical point of view which maintains that complex phenomena are best understood by a componential analysis which breaks down the phenomena into their fundamental, elementary aspects. The core of the reductionist's position is that greater insight into nature will be derived by recasting the analyses carried out at one level into a deeper, more basic level.
(Arthur S. Reber: Dictionary of Psychology, Penguin 1985)

Reflective thinking is reflection on thinking itself, on the mind and its activities. More generally, it is thinking associated with self-consciousness, self-knowledge or self-reflection. It is based on contemplation, meditation or introspection, the latter being defined as:

Awareness by an individual of his own states and condition, with particular reference to his mental and emotional activity. [There are views that hold] that introspection is an adequate guide to complete self-knowledge...
(Antony Flew: A Dictionary of Philosophy, St. Martin's Press 1979)

Thinking as based on scientific methodology and scientific views, such as physicalism, realism, reductionism, empiricism, positivism, etc, and specifically on scientism, which is defined as:

(a) The sciences are more important than the arts for an understanding of the world in which we live, or, even, all we need to understand it.
(b) Only a scientific methodology is intellectually acceptable.
(c) Philosophical problems are scientific problems and should only be dealt with as such.
(Ted Honderich: The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press 1995)

As contrasted with Primary Thinking, Secondary Thinking is the generic form of thought of the Individual Mind, and as such, synonymous with Individual Thinking.

The world is not a product of our individual thinking (which is arbitrary and does not have the necessity of the physical world), but of mankind's collective thought, the Primary Thinking of the Universe, that itself produces the individual or Secondary Thinking.

Thinking based on the philosophical notion of speculation, which is defined as:

Speculation or speculative thinking designates a knowledge or cognition that transcends experience and is directed at the spiritual, super-natural and divine, fundamental to experience. Kant (Logic, Introd. IV): "Cognition of the general in abstracto is speculative cognition; cognition of the general in concreto is common cognition. Philosophy is speculative cognition and it therefore begins where the common use of reason sets out to make attempts at cognition of the general in abstracto."
(J. Hoffmeister: Wörterbuch der Philosophischen Begriffe, Meiner Verlag, 1955)

It is contrasted with conrete, empirical , and practical thinking.

In contrast to analytic or functional thinking, synthetic thinking is based on the cognitive process of synthesis, which is defined as:

The process of combining elements such that the resulting fusion, integration or organization results in a unified whole. .... the emergent whole has properties or qualities that are the result of the synthesis and not necessarily derivable form an analysis of the several elements.
(Arthur S. Reber: Dictionary of Psychology, Penguin 1985)

Thinking based on systems theory, as defined by Fritjof Capra:

Systems theory looks at the world in terms of the interrelatedness and interdependence of all phenomena, and in this framework an integrated whole whose properties cannot be reduced to those of its parts is called a system.
(The Turning Point, Fontana 1990, p. 26)

... a system has come to mean an integrated whole whose essential properties arise from the relationships between its parts, and "systems thinking" the understanding of a phenomenon within the context of a larger whole. This is, in fact, the root meaning of the word "system", which derives from the Greek synhistanai ("to place together"). To understand things systemically literally means to put them into a context, to establish the nature of their relationships.
(The Web of Life, Anchor Books, 1996, p. 27)

For a discussion of systems theory in relation to the notion of "mind as a system" see Essay E035.

As contrasted with practical thinking, theoretical thinking operates in terms of systematic and methodological processes as found in scientific and logical thinking.
In a more general and philosophical sense, it is the activity of the mind as understood by Aristotle in his Nichomachean Ethics, where the Life of Contemplation (theoria) is the most perfect form of mental activity.

The supreme latent faculty of the Individual Mind (Pure Mind), capable of accessing and processing any conceivable information in Hyponoesis (Paranoetic Knowledge/Information). Paranoesis or Transrational Thinking transcends the limitations of rational thinking and leads to yet unknown possibilities and powers resident within our mind. Paranoesis reunites the Individual Mind with the Universal Mind.
Transrational Thinking is covered in almost all my Essays, especially in the following ones:

• Introduction to Transrational Thinking
• Nature and Development of Transrational Thinking
• Emotive and Paranoetic Thinking
• Intellectual and Paranoetic Thinking
• Paranoetic Knowledge
• Paranoetic Information Semantics

Transrational thought combines the faculties of pure intuition and pure thought into a new, yet unexplored faculty of mind. It is the most powerful tool of the human mind and uses not only 100% of the brain's capacity but moreover is capable of tapping resources beyond that of the brain.

In Transrational thinking we directly know the essence of the object, because we bypass the perplexing maze of conceptual thinking and directly apprehend the being-in-itself of the object, its very essence. This intuition is not a sensational experience but a noetic state of the mind that consists in being one with the essential nature of the object. (see Essay Knowledge and Information)

see also intuition.

Universal Thinking is the thinking of the Universal Mind, and as such, synonymous to Primary Thinking and contrasted with Individual or Secondary Thinking .

[In Universal Thinking]... the individual form recedes into the original matter, the original Mind. .... every limitation that is pertinent to my individual form as a human being and to my individual form of thinking, is cast off and my mind becomes the Universal Mind, my thinking blends into the Universal Thinking and becomes one with it. (see Essay Paranoetic Knowledge)

Habituative Adjustment is one of the metaphysical principles of Hyponoetics: Thought as an evolutionary instrument of survival and adaptation to the environment develops primarily utilitaristic and habituative patterns that dominate the life of most people. To break the spell of habituation, thinking has to transcend its natural structure and become what is commonly called "creative" thinking (also: cultural thinking, aesthetic thinking, philosophical thinking, mystic thinking, scientific thinking).

Generally, habits are "... learned acts, ... a pattern of activity that has, through repetition, become automatized, fixed and easily and effortlessly carried out. ... A pattern of action that is characteristic of a particular species of animal." (Arthur S. Reber: Dictionary of Psychology, Penguin 1985).

Consequently, thinking habits are acquired mental patterns or fixed patterns of thought that manifest themselves in similar and iterative thought processes of an individual mind. Once certain mental habits are instilled into our minds, we stick to them, often in an irrational or stubborn fashion. We cling to certain views we acquired, although these may have become obsolete, inconsistent, irrational, or simply stupid and no long sustainable. To transcend these habits in our thinking is the first step to higher forms of thought, such as philosophical or Transrational Thinking.

1. a: the action or process of thinking: cogitation. b: serious consideration: regard.
2. a: reasoning power. b: the power to imagine: conception.
3. something that is thought: as a: an individual act or product of thinking, b: a developed inention or plan, c: something (as an opinion or belief) in the mind, d: the intellectual product or the organized views and principles of a period, place, group, or individual.
(Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition)

1. A general term covering the cognitive processes discussed under Thinking.
2. A single but complex idea, proposition, etc.
(Arthur S. Reber: Dictionary of Psychology, Penguin 1985)

Gedanke, bei Ch. Wolff für lat. perceptio und cogitatio, 1. der Vorgang des Denkens (Denkakt), 2. der erlebte Denkinhalt, das Erzeugnis oder Ergebnis des Denkens, 3. der logische Wert, der ideale Gegenstand, der dadurch definiert wird, dass jede Aussage als Name eines Gedankens behandelt wird.
(J. Hoffmeister: Wörterbuch der Philosophischen Begriffe, Meiner Verlag, 1955)

About Thoughts as holistic patterns see Essay Hologemes.

`Thinking' seems to be the process of having particular and single 'thoughts'. Whereas thoughts are considered as particularities or singularities, separable as single analytic entities, thinking has come to mean a procedural event known to everybody having self-consciousness.

What is the process of thought? Thought is, in essence, the active response of memory in every phase of life. We include in thought the intellectual, emotional, sensuous, muscular and physiological responses of memory. These are all aspects of one indissoluble process. All these are one process of response of memory to each actual situation, which response in turn leads to a further contribution to memory, thus conditioning the next thought. (p. 50)
...thought itself is in an actual process of movement. That is to say, one can feel a sense of flow in the 'stream of consciousness' not dissimilar to the sense of flow in the movement of matter in general. May not thought itself thus be a part of reality as a whole? (p. ix)
(David Bohm: Wholeness and the Implicate Order, 1992)

The actual process of thought does not consist of single, clearly separable and analyzable units called thoughts, although we tend to identify these our thoughts with linguistic units, such as words or sentences. Thought processes are much more complex and always involve interlaced holistic patterns, called Hologemes. (see Essay Hologemes)

By translationism I understand the theory of translating the Hologemes (holistic patterns) of the Universal Mind (Hyponoesis) in the process of Transrational Thinking into the verbogemes (verbal patterns) of the Individual Mind (Exonoesis).

There are two kinds of translations:

a) analogical translation (i.e., art, music, poetry, metaphors, religious symbols etc.), that is, everything connected with emotional experience, empathy, meditation, religious practices etc.
b) noetic translation (i.e., philosophy), that is, translation into concrete concepts of our language, although new concepts may be found that can to some extent expand the malleable boundary of language.

The Shorter Oxford English Dicitonary's definition of 'truth': 'conformity with facts, agreement with reality". This definition encapsulates the common-sense theory of truth, the correspondence theory, which claims that a statement is true if it corresponds to the facts. The absolute idealists put forward a coherence theory of truth, in which the only absolute truth is 'the whole' - anything less than that can only aspire to degrees of truth. William James argued for a pragmatic theory of truth, according to which the problem of truth is one of welfare economics, for a true assertion is one that proves the best for us in the long run. Tarski attempted to avoid the problems of self-reference by claiming that 'truth' can only be defined in a metalanguage.
(Antony Flew: A Dictionary of Philosophy, St. Martin's Press 1979)

Man definiert im allg. die Wahrheit als die Übereinstimmung des Denkens oder Vorstellens mit seinem Gegenstand. Diese Auffassung geht auf Aristoteles zurück; nach ihm nannten die Scholastiker die Wahrheit eine adaequatio rerum et intellectus 'Übereinstimmung der Sache und des sie erkennenden Verstandes' (Albertus Magnus, Sum. theol. 1, 25,2).... Das Wesentliche der Wahrheit oder des Wahren ist nicht das Spiegeln eines ausserhalb des Bewusstseins Liegenden durch das Bewusstsein, sondern ein lebendiges, ursprüngliches Geschehen, Entspringen, das Sich-Erweisen einer inneren Kraft, die im Bewusstsein ihrer selbst inne wird und im Masse ihrer Stärke, ihres Wachstums, ergeifend und gestaltend-umgestaltend ins Äussere tritt, d.h. sich offenbart. Wahrheit in diesem sinne ist verwandt mit alétheia. Sie ist von dem griech. Wahrheitsbegriff aber auch verschieden insofern, als Wahrheit nicht das Erschlossene, sondern das Erschliessen, die Tätigkeit des Erschliessens selbst meint... Wahrheit ist mithin wesentlich mehr als "ein theoretischer Wert". Es handelt sich hier nicht um das theoretische Verhältnis des Bewusstseins zum Sein, sondern um das metaphysische des Absoluten zum Relativen... Das Kriterium der Wahrheit ist dann die Verwirklichung des Wesens.
(J. Hoffmeister: Wörterbuch der Philosophischen Begriffe, Meiner Verlag, 1955)

We can resolve the problem of whether there is absolute truth or only relative truth by assuming two different contexts and faculties of the mind, through which the world and man could be viewed perspectivally and absolutely, without being involved in logical contradiction. Both, absoluteness and relativity of truth, are reconciled in a higher vision of the mind. Mind, as long as it remains bound to its individual form (discursive reason, rational thinking) is relativistic in its views and notions (and consequently employs only relative truths), but as soon as the individual mind rises to the level of the Universal Mind, the narrow boundary of its form is transcended. Free from the form of particularity, the Mind is able to think in absolute terms and therefore is capable of understanding absolute truths, the eternal and unchanging principles of the Universal Mind.