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🇦🇷 Argentina /Culture & Society

Darío Sztajnszrajber: “The truth is that there is no truth”

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Interview Named sources Context piece
  • Philosopher Darío Sztajnszrajber said contemporary philosophy questions the idea that human beings can arrive at a single, absolute truth.
  • He distinguished everyday, scientific and philosophical truths, saying the first two focus more on how things work while philosophy seeks broader meaning.
  • Sztajnszrajber rejected social-media formulas for happiness and highlighted Epicurus’s idea of ataraxia, while saying he still has no definitive answer about life’s purpose.

“The truth is that there is no truth,” Darío Sztajnszrajber said in an exclusive interview with LA NACION, describing the tension at the heart of contemporary philosophy. The traditional idea of philosophy as a search for truth becomes problematic, he said, when some philosophical currents conclude that human beings ultimately discover there is no truth.

The truth is that there is no truth.

· Darío SztajnszrajberHe used the phrase to describe the paradox reached by some contemporary philosophical approaches to truth.

He connected that circular argument to Nietzsche’s controversial formulation: “There are no facts, only interpretations.” But Sztajnszrajber also drew distinctions between different kinds of truth. Everyday truth supports the practical routines that make daily life work, while scientific truth is likewise concerned with how things function.

Philosophical truth, he said, involves a different search. It is more ontological and concerned with general meaning. “One thing is for something to work and another thing is for it to be true,” he explained, arguing that the question of truth can be linked to a more transcendent purpose of existence.

There are no facts, only interpretations.

· Friedrich NietzscheSztajnszrajber cited Nietzsche’s formulation while discussing the challenge to absolute certainty.

The philosopher also rejected the personal-success formulas widely promoted on social media. Instead, he returned to Epicurus’s concept of ataraxia, defined as “the imperturbability of the soul and the search for minimal pleasures.” He recalled his mother’s description of happiness as the absence of external annoyances, an idea that echoed Epicurean independence.

One thing is for something to work and another thing is for it to be true.

· Darío SztajnszrajberHe distinguished practical and scientific functionality from philosophical truth.

At 58, Sztajnszrajber said he still does not have a definitive answer about the purpose of life. His own sense of fulfillment, he said, comes from the desire to know and from maintaining a constant capacity for wonder.

The imperturbability of the soul and the search for minimal pleasures.

· Darío Sztajnszrajber, describing Epicurus’s concept of ataraxiaHe presented the concept as an alternative to social-media formulas for happiness.
About this summary

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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