On Truth
What is truth?
My current understanding of truth comes from Physics, and Kung-Fu Panda.
Physics gives me the intuition that truth is an objective fact, merely discovered by observation.
Whilst Kung-Fu Panda gives me the intuition that some truths depend on belief. That while the Secret Ingridient soup has no ‘secret ingredient’ at all, if everyone believes there is one, it is as all the same.
These are quite contradictory versions of truth. And I suspect they have different consequences for how you live life. So, I am planning to use this piece to grapple with truth a little, to understand what truth is, and what it isnt.
My plan is to create a map of the major philosophical theories, and then interrogating them in hopes of learning wether physics of Kung-Fu Panda is in the right.
Some of the questions leading my wondering are:
Does truth exist?
Is truth based on evidence? belief? consenus?
Is objective truth possible for human beings to access?
Are there truths that cannot be proven?
Is it worth perusing truth?
I. The purpose of truth
It sure feels useful to have a thing such as truth.
Yesterday, a friend of mine with a photographic memory paid me a visit for dinner.
Whilst he has only glimpsed at my kitchen, it didn’t stop him from perfectly recalling every condiment in my house, during our grocery shopping trip, with a precise location of each one as well as the amounts left. A few of my shillings were saved that day.
So, if not for philosophical reasons, truth is certainly useful for practical once.
In-fact, evaluating any claim needs some sort of a standard of truth.
If you tell me to meet you at the station at 6, it matters that there really is a station, that we roughly agree on what “6” means, and that you intend to be there.
Understanding of some standard of truth thus allows us to navigate and share the world.
I. Review of theories:
My map of truth theories will be based on the STE’s (Stanford’s Encyclapedia of Philossopy) body of work, since it seems to cover the main theories excellently.
My Sketchpad: 1. The neo-classical theories of truth core theories of 20th century are: correspondance, coherence, and pragmatist theories. they are trying to answer the nature of things. what is the nature of truth. Taking the question at face value by saing that there are truths, and the question to be answered concerns their nature. In answering this question, each theory makes the notion of truth part of a more thoroughgoing metaphysics or epistemology. Explaining the nature of truth becomes an application of some metaphysical system, and truth inherits significant metaphysical presuppositions along the way. - 1.1 The correspondence theory - 1.1.1 The origins of the correspondence theory - 1.1.2 The neo-classical correspondence theory - 1.2 The coherence theory - 1.3 Pragmatist theories 2. Tarski’s theory of truth - 2.1 Sentences as truth-bearers - 2.2 Convention T - 2.3 Recursive definition of truth - 2.4 Reference and satisfaction 3. Correspondence revisited - 3.1 Correspondence without facts - 3.2 Representation and Correspondence - 3.3 Facts again - 3.4 Truthmakers 4. Realism and anti-realism - 4.1 Realism and truth - 4.2 Anti-realism and truth - 4.3 Anti-realism and pragmatism - 4.4 Truth pluralism 5. Deflationism - 5.1 The redundancy theory - 5.2 Minimalist theories - 5.3 Disquotationalism - 5.4 The logical status of the Tarski biconditionals - 5.5 Critical response 6. Truth and language - 6.1 Truth-bearers - 6.2 Truth and truth conditions - 6.3 Truth conditions and deflationism - 6.4 Truth and the theory of meaning - 6.5 The coherence theory and meaning - 6.6 Truth and assertion