Recently, I wrote a piece about truth and lies and our relationship to each. I began by focusing on lies and then went back and explained that to understand what a lie is, we must first understand the concept of truth. The reason I chose to start by focusing on lying is because one of the main points I wanted to communicate in that post was that too many people seem to be comfortable nowadays living a lie. In terms of setting the stage for my main point, it was entirely appropriate to open up by discussing the concept of lying and then taking a step back and discussing truth.
Self-interest being so dominant in motivating our reasoning I think the first step towards truth is a priori acceptance that knowing the truth is always best. There are plenty of specious arguments to the effect that some truths are better not known, in other words consequentialist bullshit. After you internalize that pursuit of the truth is consistent with your long-term self-interest, then some combination of logic and empiricism guides the way towards building the most accurate map of reality you're capable of drawing. Retaining epistemic humility allows that map to be refined over time with the recognition that this map will never perfectly align with Truth, but can at least move ever closer.
Self-interest being so dominant in motivating our reasoning I think the first step towards truth is a priori acceptance that knowing the truth is always best. There are plenty of specious arguments to the effect that some truths are better not known, in other words consequentialist bullshit. After you internalize that pursuit of the truth is consistent with your long-term self-interest, then some combination of logic and empiricism guides the way towards building the most accurate map of reality you're capable of drawing. Retaining epistemic humility allows that map to be refined over time with the recognition that this map will never perfectly align with Truth, but can at least move ever closer.