Ben Smith

Senior Seminar p.4

November 14, 2011
The Objectivity of Truth
In the film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa, a samurai is murdered and his wife is raped in
the forest. However, the perplexing element of this film is that four different testimonies are
brought before the judge, each explaining how the event took place. An American film critic and
an American filmmaker, Roger Ebert and Errol Morris, have each taken strong viewpoints on the
truth and reality, which specifically pertain to Rashomon. Ebert takes a very relativistic
viewpoint on the truth, saying that The genius of "Rashomon" is that all of the flashbacks are
both true and false. True, in that they present an accurate portrait of what each witness thinks
happened. False, because as Kurosawa observes in his autobiography, "Human beings are unable
to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without
embellishing." (Ebert) On the opposite side of the spectrum, Morris is a realist and states that I
do not believe that truth is subjective. Just thinking something does not make it so. This idea that
there is no reality, that truth is up for grabs, or that truth is subjective, I find foolish and
unappetizing. (Morris) With support from Platos theory of JTB, the different WoK, and mental
map, Morris view that the truth is objective is a much better model for explaining the murder
and rape that occurs in Rashomon.
Plato, a Greek philosopher who lived in about 420 BC, had a theory about what
knowledge is. He believed that knowledge can only be attained through JTB, Justified True
Belief. This models Rashomon perfectly because the viewer is placed in the position of the judge
and they must constantly contemplate what they know and what they think is the truth behind the
murder. Using JTB, the viewer can place certain events into each category and try to prove who
murdered the samurai and why. Using Tajomarus motive as Justification, the viewer can assume
that he was driven to kill the samurai over the infatuation of his wife. In the other testimonies
however, there is no explanation of motive or Justification so viewers assume that Tajomaru
must have killed the samurai. Next, the viewer must have a belief in their mind of how the
murder actually occurred. The viewers beliefs govern who they think murdered the samurai and

raped his wife. The truth part of this equation is the difficult part for many to understand. In
order for a person to know the truth, they must have already justified their belief, but for it to
be true, it must have always been true and always will be true. That is why Platos theory is so
good for modeling Morris thesis and Rashomon, because there is only one truth that can be
accepted, without that, there is no knowledge of the belief.
Another equally important tool for determining truth and supporting Morris thesis of the
objective truth are the Ways of Knowing. Reason, perception, language and emotion help
individuals decide what they think is true or false. In my opinion, reason is the most important of
the WoK because it allows people to decipher the most absurd ideas from the plausible ones.
However, reason is also flawed because people do not seem to be very good at abstract
reasoning and they are liable to all kinds of errors. (Lagemaat 9) After reason, perception is also
very important because much of our knowledge is based on personal experience (Lagemaat 8)
However, as with reason, perception is also uncertain because our senses sometimes deceive
us. (Lagemaat 8) As was the case in Rashomon, there could only be one event, however 4
witnesses perceived it differently. A third WoK that assists with acquiring knowledge and finding
the truth is emotion. Emotion can be both good and bad in helping humans make informed and
equal decisions because they provide us with the energy to pursue knowledge, but it is far from
clear that they are infallible guides to the truth. (Lagemaat 9) Many people have different
emotional biases, which make decisions skewed and determining truth more difficult. According
to Morris, the truth is objective, and the viewers of Rashomon can use the WoK to judge who the
real killer is and the one truth of what really happened.
Lastly, we as viewers can use our mental map to help determine the one truth behind the
murder in Rashomon. A mental map is every individuals ideas of what is right and wrong,
reasonable and unreasonable, and what is true and false. Following Morris theory of the
objective truth, viewers can use their mental map in a similar was as reason, in order to separate
plausible and unlikely events or information. When judging a film such as Rashomon, mental
map is somewhat difficult to use because most people do not have previous experiences to base
their judgments against. It may also deceive people when truth is based on it, because our
common-sense mental maps may give us a distorted picture of reality. (Lagemaat 7) However,

when used in the right way with some skepticism, a mental map can be very useful for
determining truth and reality. Mental map is a useful tool for supporting Morris theory of the
objective truth, because different people have different reference points to compare to and may
believe that something is true or false, even when in reality there is only one truth.
I believe that Errol Morris thesis about the truth being objective is a much better model
for Rashomon than Roger Eberts theory that the truth is subjective. The single truth in Rashomon
can be supported with Platos JTB, the WoK, and mental map. In my opinion however, each of
these tools has to be used equally in order to understand multiple ideas and ways of thinking
about a problem before the correct solution can be reached.