User:Robert A West/Truth

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

Occasionally, some Wikipedians show confusion concerning the slogan, "Verifiability, not truth." This has been excoriated as self-contradictory ("Doesn't 'verify' mean to make sure it's true?") or as expressing a post-modern indifference to truth. Neither is the intention of Wikipedia:Verifiability. The purpose of this essay is to explore this misunderstanding, and to provide some perspective.