Truth / Chase Wrenn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wrenn, Chase B., 1974- author.

Series:

Key concepts in philosophy series (Polity Press)

Key concepts in philosophy series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Truth.

Physical Description:

xi, 200 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity Press, 2015.

Summary:

What is truth? Is there anything that all truths have in common that makes them true rather than false? Is truth independent of human thought, or does it depend in some way on what we believe or what we would be justified in believing? In what sense, if any, is it better for beliefs or statements to be true than to be false? In this engaging and accessible new introduction Chase Wrenn surveys a variety of theories of the nature of truth and evaluates their philosophical costs and benefits. Paying particular attention to how the theories accommodate realist intuitions and make sense of truth's value, he discusses a full range of theories, from classical correspondence to relatively new deflationary and pluralist accounts. The book provides a clear, non-technical entry point to contemporary debates about truth for non-specialists. Specialists will also find new contributions to those debates, including a new argument for the superiority of deflationism to causal correspondence and pluralist theories. Drawing on a range of traditional and contemporary debates, this book will be of interest to students and scholars alike and anyone interested in the nature and value of truth. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 What is Truth? 1

1.1 Truth and the Truth 1

1.2 Truth Bearers 3

1.3 Being True and Being Taken to be True 5

1.4 What Lies Ahead 9

2 Objectivity 11

2.1 Three Pictures of Reality 12

2.2 Realism 14

2.3 Relativism 17

2.4 Anti-Realism 23

2.5 Objectivity and the Equivalence Principle 30

3 Truth and Value 35

3.1 Is Truth Essentially a Kind of Goodness? 36

3.2 What Makes Truth Valuable? 41

3.3 Conclusion 54

4 Epistemic Theories of Truth 56

4.1 Skepticism and What Our Tests Test 56

4.2 The Coherence Theory of Truth 58

4.3 Problems for Coherentism 60

4.4 Pragmatic Theories of Truth 62

4.5 Epistemic Theories and the Equivalence Principle 65

4.6 Epistemic Theories, Realism, and Anti-Realism 67

4.7 Epistemic Theories and the Value of Truth 68

4.8 Final Assessment of Epistemic Theories 70

5 Correspondence Theories of Truth 72

5.1 The Idea that Truth Depends on the World 72

5.2 Classical Correspondence Theories 73

5.3 From Classical to Causal Correspondence 81

5.4 Problems for Causal Correspondence 85

5.5 Truth makers 88

5.6 The Scope Problem 93

5.7 The Equivalence Principle, Realism, and the Value of Truth 96

6 Deflationary Theories of Truth 103

6.1 A New Way to Think About Truth 103

6.2 The Redundancy Theory 104

6.3 Disquotationalism 109

6.4 Minimalism 116

6.5 Resolving the Explanatory and Evidentiary Problems 121

6.6 Deflationism, the Equivalence Principle, and Realism 123

6.7 Deflationism and the Value of Truth 127

7 Pluralist Theories of Truth 133

7.1 Truth Monism and Truth Pluralism 133

7.2 The Scope Problem Again 134

7.3 Two Problems for Deflationism 137

7.4 Simple Pluralism and Wright's View 142

7.5 Simple Pluralism, Mixed Compounds, and Mixed Inferences 147

7.6 Alethic Functionalism 150

7.7 Objections to Pluralist Theories of Truth 152

7.8 Pluralism's Scorecard 158

8 Deflationism Revisited 161

8.1 Advancing the Debates 161

8.2 Common Ground and Methodological Deflationism 162

8.3 Deflationism vs. the Causal Correspondence Theory 164

8.4 Deflationism vs. Pluralism 169

8.5 Conclusion 179.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-186) and index.

ISBN:

9780745663234

0745663230

9780745663241

0745663249

OCLC:

890160991

Publisher Number:

99960555463