Truth/evidenced

About

Evidenced truth (aka "most-likely truth" or "best-informed-guess truth") is that set of hypotheses about objective truth which is best supported by the best currently-available evidence.

Evidenced truth inevitably changes over time, as new discoveries reveal flaws (most often exceptions and edge-cases) in our pre-existing hypotheses. If our reasoning and evidence-gathering processes are good, though, the evidenced truth will grow incrementally closer to the objective truth as the body of evidence refining our conclusions increases.

Any understanding of the truth can also be thought of as a model or map, where it is generally understood that no map or model is ever completely accurate because it's always an oversimplification that helps us to better comprehend the features of reality that are most relevant in a given context.

• "All models are wrong, but some are useful." — scientific aphorism
• "Never confuse the map for the territory." — lay aphorism