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GAMSAT Section 2 quote prompts: Truth

2 GAMSAT-style prompts on truth. Each gives you five comments that disagree, so your job is to find the tension and argue a clear position. Give yourself about 30 minutes per essay.

Task A · ArgumentPrompt 1 of 2

Consider the following comments on truth.

  • The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.

    Anonymous

  • A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.

    Anonymous

  • There are no facts, only interpretations.

    Friedrich Nietzsche

  • Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.

    Albert Einstein

Write a piece in response to one or more of these comments. Your essay will be assessed on the quality of your argument and the way you express it.

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Task A · ArgumentPrompt 2 of 2

Consider the following comments on truth.

  • The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.

    James A. Garfield

  • If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

    Mark Twain

  • A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.

    Anonymous

  • There are comforting illusions a society cannot survive without, and cruel facts it cannot survive ignoring.

  • We say we want the truth, yet we reward most generously those who tell us what we already believe.

Write a piece in response to one or more of these comments. Your essay will be assessed on the quality of your argument and the way you express it.

A way into this prompt

Argue that the difficulty with truth is rarely finding it and almost always living with it, since the obstacles are as much psychological as epistemic. Begin by granting the foundational case, that truth is the precondition for trust, accountability and freedom from self-deception. Then turn to the friction: truths can wound, destabilise and arrive too slowly to outrun a satisfying lie, which is why falsehood so often wins the early race. A strong third move distinguishes the pursuit of truth (a discipline of doubting our own convictions) from the possession of truth (a claim that breeds dogmatism). Caution: avoid the fashionable shrug that everything is merely a point of view, since that pose conveniently spares us from ever being wrong.

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