Don't you think that finding it yourself is better than asking others?

How can we truly come to know truths without seeking knowledge and perspective from others? If we do not do that, we cannot grow in mind and spirit.

I think the irony of this question being asked on Fluther just made my head explode a little bit.

But to answer the bold title question…. I think it is often more rewarding to find things out for yourself, but often more efficient to get help from others.

I have found that most of my “truths”, that is, my core beliefs about reality, have come from interaction with others. Are our truths concrete, or do they change over time. One of my favorite lines from Jesus Christ Superstar comes from Pilate, when he is questioning Jesus: “But what is truth? Is truth unchanging law?We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours?”

I don’t believe that there is any subjective truth. Dr. Stanley Sobottka, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Virginia, has a complete Course in Consciousness, which looks at the non-existenceof objectivity.

If you are looking for truths in terms of physical constants of the universe, then you may be able to deftly avoid dealing with people for that. Just order all your equipment over the internet.
But if you are talking about truths in interpersonal interactions, well, by definition people make those truths exist in the first place. So unless you want to install electrode into everyone’s brains and measure output as they interact, asking others is the only way to get true insight into why they do things.
although measuring how people spend money is a pretty reliable way of monitoring how they do things

@gambitking, nice!

You have to distinguish between objective and personal truths. For objective truths, I go along with @gambitking.

For personal truths, I go along with the existentialists. You have no choice but to choose for yourself. You can consult others to get different perspectives, but in the end the choice is yours.

I like to find it myself, but there are people (believe it or not) who know MORE than I do and I enjoy learning from their experiences and knowledge. I know what I want to do, but someone can suggest a way of doing it that may be better that I hadn’t thought of.

Time, Dr. Freeman.

Do you have enough time to rediscover all of science, from Newtonian Physics to Relativity and Quantum Mechanics all on your own, without reading a single book or asking a single scientist?

I am an engineer and often need technical information about technical systems or components. I prefer to ask an expert. That saves me time and resources. I can “stand on the shoulders of giants” rather than reinventing or rediscovering it myself. If I need a certain type of material I will ask a material expert. They have more experience and know the tradeoffs, options and questions I do not know to ask.

This is an interesting question.

Hm… Let me tell you how I view this.
It is impossible to be certain of any truth. There is no certain truth, but only the search. There are so many things we can never know, but look at human beings – they never stop searching, they never stop discussing it. You can only see the world from your own, subjective point of view. There is no way to ever escape this subjective view. In this life, you are you and only you. You can never experience the world through the eyes of someone else. This means that you cannot be certain if other people view green in the same way that you do. Therefore, when you ask people about things, maybe they see it in very different way but words and language are not able to communicate this. Here is the problem that I think you may be talking about. Since there is no certainty, we can either just give up and cut off the world or we can believe that it makes sense for us to search for truth through other people.

Check out the past Q about how jellies have changed some really important core beliefs by our discussions.

@lovelessness As @gambitking pointed out, you’re asking is pretty ironic. Too bad Ayn Rand isn’t around to ask. One has to wonder if, had Ms. Rand desired to know if there really is a Higgs Boson, she would have schooled herself in particle physics and ordered a Large Hadron Supercollider over the Internet for just $9,000,000,000. Oh, and she still wouldn’t have been able to run it by herself any more than John Galt would actually be able to drive all the trains, throw all the switches, man all the control and dispatch towers, take all the tickets, be all the conductors, and man all the freight yards to make the trains run on time.

Ayn Rand was an amazingly intelligent person largely out of touch with reality. Due to her disdain of facts, her Objectivist philosophy is utter rubbish. Fully applied, it rots the meat it feeds on.

It depends. During a test at school, looking at your neighbors solutions is not a good idea. When you are seriously sick, asking a doctor is better than self therapy.

Don’t waste your time on Ayn Rand. Like @ETpro said, it’s utter rubbish.

It depends who you ask, personally I feel that asking others encourages a sense of connection that’s needed. However, it’s a bit tough to reach out based on different viewpoints and perspectives, as a result as long as you connect with like-minded individuals that encourages your ideas and methodologies, there’s no harm in inquiring.

@zander101 Inbreeding of ideas in anathema to moving ever closer to the truth. Reaching out only to those that accept your ideas and reinforce them leaves you no opportunity to discover error, and it is human to ere. It may be uncomfortable to be proven to be laboring in error, but isn’t it ultimately far better than living a life of self delusion?

@ETpro It truly is human to ere err!