Belgium did not invade Germany

I must admit to my own doubts about whether 'truth' is the most fruitful concept for social investigation - but not because 'anything goes'. Too much depends on interpretation or context. Does the street Kensington Park Gardens run into Ladbroke Grove? You might say 'Yes, obviously.' But would you still say the same if the police put up a barrier between the two streets during the Notting Hill Gate carnival? On the other hand, the statement that Kensington Park Gardens runs into Kensington High Street is undeniably false. An insistence on statements that can in principle be falsified may be the best way to bring the extreme post-modernists down to earth.

Did Wellington win the battle of Waterloo? Can you give a yes or no answer in view of the contribution made by the Prussian general, BlŸcher? Maybe you think that making either general the main agent overemphasises the role of leaders and that it was the actual troops who won. But in any case it is undeniable that Napoleon lost that battle. Williams himself aptly quotes Clemenceau' s riposte to those who asked what future historians will say about the first world war: 'They will not say that Belgium invaded Germany.'

Or to take an actual social science example. Does Keynes's General Theory give a true account of the determinants of output and employment? Or is the Quantity Theory of money a true account of inflation? Only a fanatic would try to give a straight yes or no answer to these questions. Too much depends both on how the theories are elaborated and the conditions under which they are claimed to operate. But anyone who discusses these matters must accept that there was a Great Depression in the early 1930s and that double-digit inflation occurred in many countries in the 1970s.

Is the account given by evolutionary scientists of the development of life on earth from the most primitive organisms to anthropoid apes and then to Homo sapiens 'true'? It is the best account that can be given at present. Future research may provide a still better account. But to say, with Bishop Ussher, that the world began in 404 BC is false. Highly probably false. There is very little certainty outside the systems of formal logic and mathematics which are true by definition.

Williams's ultimate position is given by a sentence near the end:

Different audiences welcome different interpretations, but at the same time there is enough overlap between the audiences, if the culture is in good shape, for one group to know what may be brought against it by others.

Samuel Brittan's website is www.samuelbrittan.co.uk

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