Quote from: blablahblah on August 27, 2014, 10:01:14 PM

You see, the thing about Russians is that their "pravda" does not accurately translate to the word "truth". There's a cultural divide there, since pravda relates to law, legality, and decree, unlike truth, which is objective and absolute, and often considered to be of divine origin. On the one hand, they may have a good point if discussing quantum physics or General Relativity, or if intuitively applying similar concepts of relativity to interactions between humans. Because, you know, "what really happened" may indeed be different for different observers.

On the other hand, none of the Russians here are discussing those sorts of philosophical things. They readily dismiss someone else's "truth", presumably because they assume that it has the same flaky governmental style as the "pravda". The mentality seems to be that everyone else is potentially lying, whereas only the Kremlin has the power to speak the real pravda. "All Western information is potentially bullshit. It's not the pravda until the Kremlin says it is!"

So you see, they have such a long history of being stubborn authoritarians that it's built into the language. Some Russians, not all. You know how it goes. Wink

Too many conclusions from nothing. It's nothing more than conversational routine of some East Slavic languages, which was appeared due to influence of byzantine culture.

"Truth" is frequently translated as Istina (Иcтинa, [ˈisʲtʲɪnə]) which applies to statement about objective reality, which could be falsified. Pravda (Пpaвдa, [ˈpravdə]) usually could be described as subjective perception of truth which depends on the context and couldn't be falsified. But in fact, these definitions are not exactly accurate. Many people are using the [ˈpravdə] while talking about [ˈisʲtʲɪnə] in everyday communication, but these words are completely different and don't have any exact english equivalents.

For example, the both [ˈisʲtʲɪnə] and [ˈpravdə] have negative counterparts (лoжь [ˈɫoʂ] and нeпpaвдa [nʲɪˈpravdə]) while there is no such sharp, black-and-white contrast in english. There is the truth, but there are also white lies, and there is understatement along with various other "gray" categories of speech.

English word truth is often contrasted with the word error and has more to do with knowledge than with speech. The point isn't that somebody says truth or not, the point is about knowledge of truth. It isn't assumed that people are often telling lies, but assumed that people are often wrong. I.e. you don't need to prove that you're not telling lies but you need to prove that you're right.

That is the reason why there is no exact equivalent for truth in eastern slavic languages as well as no exact equivalent of pravda in english, it's caused by much stronger "truth conditions". In case of istina you need to satisfy two conditions, that you're right and you're not telling lie. In case of pravda you don't have to prove that you're right, you only have to prove that you're not telling lie.

Just as usual, you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

Quote from: blablahblah on August 27, 2014, 10:01:14 PM

On the other hand, none of the Russians here are discussing those sorts of philosophical things.

I don't know how in your country, but here the philosophy is mandatory to study at any university. And anyone who has a university degree, no matter in what specialty, knows the difference between "Pravda" and "Istina".

Quote from: blablahblah on August 27, 2014, 10:01:14 PM

The mentality seems to be that everyone ~~else~~ is potentially ~~lying~~ not telling truth

Corrected, I'd say that it's quite logical position. Because everybody keeps silence if it has a sense. Even your own children or parents. "Hypocrite" is almost synonymous word for "human" in any language.

Quote from: blablahblah on August 27, 2014, 10:01:14 PM

whereas only the Kremlin has the power to speak the real pravda

Incorrect, Kremlin statements are perceived as "they're not telling truth" as well, there are really a lot of jokes about this subject since very old times.