An Identity Theory of Truth

An Identity Theory of Truth PDF Author: J. Dodd
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349628700
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This book argues that correspondence theories of truth fail because the relation which holds between a true thought and a fact is that of identity, not correspondence. According to Julian Dodd, facts are not complexes of worldly entities; they are, as Frege believed, true thoughts. The supposed truthmaker is nothing but the truthbearer. The author christens this response to correspondence theories the modest identity theory, which he goes on to distinguish from those identity theories propounded, at some time or other, by Russell, Moore, Bradley, John McDowell and Jennifer Hornsby. It is acknowledged that the modest identity theory provides neither a definition of truth nor an account of what truth consists in. The modest identity theory's role is, by contrast, that of diagnosing the failure of correspondence theories, and thereby preparing the ground for a proper deflation of the concept of truth: a deflation defended in the latter part of the book.

An Identity Theory of Truth

An Identity Theory of Truth PDF Author: J. Dodd
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349628700
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book argues that correspondence theories of truth fail because the relation which holds between a true thought and a fact is that of identity, not correspondence. According to Julian Dodd, facts are not complexes of worldly entities; they are, as Frege believed, true thoughts. The supposed truthmaker is nothing but the truthbearer. The author christens this response to correspondence theories the modest identity theory, which he goes on to distinguish from those identity theories propounded, at some time or other, by Russell, Moore, Bradley, John McDowell and Jennifer Hornsby. It is acknowledged that the modest identity theory provides neither a definition of truth nor an account of what truth consists in. The modest identity theory's role is, by contrast, that of diagnosing the failure of correspondence theories, and thereby preparing the ground for a proper deflation of the concept of truth: a deflation defended in the latter part of the book.

Veritas

Veritas PDF Author: Gerald Vision
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262264990
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
A restatement of the correspondence theory of truth together with a defense against objections and alternative theories, including deflationism, minimalism, and pluralism. In Veritas, Gerald Vision defends the correspondence theory of truth—the theory that truth has a direct relationship to reality—against recent attacks, and critically examines its most influential alternatives. The correspondence theory, if successful, explains one way in which we are cognitively connected to the world; thus, it is claimed, truth—while relevant to semantics, epistemology, and other studies—also has significant metaphysical consequences. Although the correspondence theory is widely held today, Vision points to an emerging orthodoxy in philosophy that claims that truth as such carries no significant weight in philosophical explanations. He devotes much of the book to a criticism of that outlook and to a less vulnerable formulation of the correspondence theory. Vision defends the correspondence theory by both presenting evidence for correspondence and examining the claims made by such alternative theories as deflationism, minimalism, and pluralism. The techniques of the argument are thoroughly analytic, but the problem confronted is broadly humanistic. The question examined—how we, as thinking beings, are connected to and manage to cope in a world that was not designed for our comfort or convenience—is more likely to be raised by continentalists, but is approached here with the tools of clarity and precision more highly prized in analytic philosophy. The book seeks to avoid both the obscurantism that infects much continental thought and the overly technical concerns and methodology that limit the interest of much work in analytic philosophy. It thus provides a rigorous but largely nontechnical treatment of the topic that will be of interest not only to readers familiar with philosophy but also to those with a background in literary theory and linguistics.

Truth and Predication

Truth and Predication PDF Author: Donald Davidson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674030220
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This brief book takes readers to the very heart of what it is that philosophy can do well. Completed shortly before Donald Davidson's death at 85, Truth and Predication brings full circle a journey moving from the insights of Plato and Aristotle to the problems of contemporary philosophy. In particular, Davidson, countering many of his contemporaries, argues that the concept of truth is not ambiguous, and that we need an effective theory of truth in order to live well. Davidson begins by harking back to an early interest in the classics, and an even earlier engagement with the workings of grammar; in the pleasures of diagramming sentences in grade school, he locates his first glimpse into the mechanics of how we conduct the most important activities in our life--such as declaring love, asking directions, issuing orders, and telling stories. Davidson connects these essential questions with the most basic and yet hard to understand mysteries of language use--how we connect noun to verb. This is a problem that Plato and Aristotle wrestled with, and Davidson draws on their thinking to show how an understanding of linguistic behavior is critical to the formulating of a workable concept of truth. Anchored in classical philosophy, Truth and Predication nonetheless makes telling use of the work of a great number of modern philosophers from Tarski and Dewey to Quine and Rorty. Representing the very best of Western thought, it reopens the most difficult and pressing of ancient philosophical problems, and reveals them to be very much of our day.

The Nature of Truth, second edition

The Nature of Truth, second edition PDF Author: Michael P. Lynch
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262542064
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 769

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Book Description
The definitive and essential collection of classic and new essays on analytic theories of truth, revised and updated, with seventeen new chapters. The question "What is truth?" is so philosophical that it can seem rhetorical. Yet truth matters, especially in a "post-truth" society in which lies are tolerated and facts are ignored. If we want to understand why truth matters, we first need to understand what it is. The Nature of Truth offers the definitive collection of classic and contemporary essays on analytic theories of truth. This second edition has been extensively revised and updated, incorporating both historically central readings on truth's nature as well as up-to-the-moment contemporary essays. Seventeen new chapters reflect the current trajectory of research on truth.

Leibniz's Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles

Leibniz's Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles PDF Author: Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198712669
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Examines the place and role of the identity of indisernibles, which rules out numerically distinct but perfectly similar things, in Leibniz's philosophy.

A Companion to the Philosophy of Language

A Companion to the Philosophy of Language PDF Author: Bob Hale
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118972082
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 1176

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Book Description
“Providing up-to-date, in-depth coverage of the central question, and written and edited by some of the foremost practitioners in the field, this timely new edition will no doubt be a go-to reference for anyone with a serious interest in the philosophy of language.” Kathrin Glüer-Pagin, Stockholm University Now published in two volumes, the second edition of the best-selling Companion to the Philosophy of Language provides a complete survey of contemporary philosophy of language. The Companion has been greatly extended and now includes a monumental 17 new essays – with topics chosen by the editors, who curated suggestions from current contributors – and almost all of the 25 original chapters have been updated to take account of recent developments in the field. In addition to providing a synoptic view of the key issues, figures, concepts, and debates, each essay introduces new and original contributions to ongoing debates, as well as addressing a number of new areas of interest, including two-dimensional semantics, modality and epistemic modals, and semantic relationism. The extended “state-of-the-art” chapter format allows the authors, all of whom are internationally eminent scholars in the field, to incorporate original research to a far greater degree than competitor volumes. Unrivaled in scope, this volume represents the best contemporary critical thinking relating to the philosophy of language.

Properties and Propositions

Properties and Propositions PDF Author: Robert Trueman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108840477
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Articulates and defends a novel theory of properties and propositions, based on Frege's insight that properties are not objects.

What Truth is

What Truth is PDF Author: Mark Jago
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198823819
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Mark Jago offers a new metaphysical account of truth. He argues that to be true is to be made true by the existence of a suitable worldly entity. Truth arises as a relation between a proposition - the content of our sayings, thoughts, beliefs, and so on - and an entity (or entities) in the world.

Truth and the Absence of Fact

Truth and the Absence of Fact PDF Author: Hartry Field
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199241716
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
Hartry Field presents a selection of thirteen essays on a set of related topics at the foundations of philosophy; one essay is previously unpublished, and eight are accompanied by substantial new postscripts.Five of the essays are primarily about truth, meaning, and propositional attitudes, five are primarily about semantic indeterminacy and other kinds of 'factual defectiveness' in our discourse, and three are primarily about issues concerning objectivity, especially in mathematics and in epistemology. The essays on truth, meaning, and the attitudes show a development from a form of correspondence theory of truth and meaning to a more deflationist perspective.The next set of papers argue that a place must be made in semantics for the idea that there are questions about which there is no fact of the matter, and address the difficulties involved in making sense of this, both within a correspondence theory of truth and meaning, and within a deflationary theory. Two papers argue that there are questions in mathematics about which there is no fact of the mattter, and draw out implications of this for the nature of mathematics. And the final paper arguesfor a view of epistemology in which it is not a purely fact-stating enterprise.This influential work by a key figure in contemporary philosophy will reward the attention of any philosopher interested in language, epistemology, or mathematics.

Truth and Truthmakers

Truth and Truthmakers PDF Author: D. M. Armstrong
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521547239
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
This book, first published in 2004, makes a compelling case for truthmaking and its importance in philosophy.