Movatterモバイル変換

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   83 citations  

In this paper, we provide a new formulation of acoherencetheory of truth using the resources of the partial structures approach − in particular the notions of partial structure and quasi-truth. After developing this new formulation, we apply the resultingtheory to the philosophy of mathematics, and argue that it can be used to develop a new account of nominalism in mathematics. This application illustrates the strength and usefulness of the proposed formulation of acoherence (...)theory of truth.Neste artigo, propomos uma nova formulação de uma teoria coerentista da verdade utilizando os recursos da abordagem de estruturas parciais - em particular as noções de estrutura parcial e quase-verdade. Após desenvolver esta formulação, aplicamos a teoria resultante à filosofia da matemática, e argumentamos que aquela pode ser usada para desenvolver um novo tratamento do nominalismo na matemática. Esta aplicação ilustra a força e utilidade da formulação proposta de uma teoria coerentista da verdade. (shrink)

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark  

Werkmeister's new book, The Basis and Structure of Knowledge is the second major attempt in recent years to defend the idealistictheory of knowledge. The first was Blanshard's Nature of Thought; and it is worth noticing that both authors, in undertaking the defense of a position long in the shadows, are well aware of contemporary developments in logic and technical philosophy. Werkmeister freely acknowledges his debt to Blanshard; yet his work differs in scope from the latter's in at least (...) two ways. Firstly, the more recent book is concerned largely with the epistemological analysis of meaning and truth and hardly at all with what an older generation called "philosophical psychology," while philosophical psychology fills all of the first and part of the second volume of Blanshard's work. In my opinion, this is all to the good. (That our generation inverts the error and too often indulges in psychological philosophy is another story!) Secondly, Werkmeister presents us with detailed analyses of scientific method, of the structure of scientific theories, and of mathematics, all three areas to which Blanshard pays virtually no attention. The First Part of Werkmeister's book treats of Language and Meaning; the Second of Truth and the World About Us, the Third of Formal Knowledge, and the Fourth Part deals with Empirical Knowledge. But there is a fundamental thesis that runs through all of this. The analysis of each of these four domains reveals, according to Werkmeister, that only acoherencetheory of meaning and truth can adequately reflect the criteria actually used by science and commonsense. It is not my intention to rehearse here the familiar dialectic of the arguments for and against this doctrine; the less so, since Werkmeister himself gives a useful review of both sides of the controversy. Rather, I want to try to fix as precisely as possible, within the context of Werkmeister's discussion, the nature of the difference betweencoherence theories on the one hand and correspondence theories on the other. This difference has not always been too clearly stated; it even seems that recent developments in linguistic analysis have been the occasion for some new confusions on this very point. Forcoherence theorists who have recognized that philosophical semantics is a "formal" discipline now insist that "to say what a symbol means is not to relate it to an object, but to give it an interpretation in terms of other symbols," as Ayer2 has recently put it. This seems to contradict the "comparison with fact" feature of the traditional realistic formulations of the correspondence view. A superficial bystander could even believe that the correspondence theorists have given up their original position, since both sides now agree that truth is a matter of a relation between symbols. Such agreement, as I hope to show, is more apparent than real, for what is now at stake is the nature of that "intrasymbolic relation." And on this nature the two parties disagree. There is little doubt that Werkmeister's book appears at a moment more propitious for the advocacy of thecoherencetheory of truth than did Blanshard's. In the near decade that separates the two works the intellectual climate has become, for better or for worse, considerably more favorable to a reconsideration of, and possibly even a reconciliation with, some of the major tenets of rationalism. This is reflected in the current discussion regarding the contrary-to-fact conditional, the dissatisfaction with material implication, and the correlative concern for a more adequate analysis of the concept of a natural law. It is evident too in the revived enthusiasm for intensional logic and in the related interest in the modalities. As uncompromising an empiricist as C. L. Lewis, with whom, by the way, Werkmeister shares a common Kantian background, has introduced into his latest work a "congruence"theory of truth which, despite the substitution of a so-called "probability" inference for necessary inference, looks very much like the coherance criterion all over again. So Werkmeister's book should be welcome for its clear presentation of the relevant issues; and even those who disagree with him can admire the candor and forthrightness with which he champions what remains, despite vacillations, an essentially unpopular position. (shrink)

Direct download(8 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   1 citation  

Quine argues, in “On the Nature of Moral Values” that acoherencetheory of truth is the “lot of ethics”. In this paper, I do a bit of work from within Quineantheory. Specifically, I explore precisely what acoherencetheory of truth in ethics might look like and what it might imply for the study of normative valuetheory generally. The first section of the paper is dedicated to the exposition of a formally (...) correctcoherence truth predicate, the possibility of which has been the subject of some skepticism. In the final two sections of the paper, I claim that acoherencetheory in ethics does not reduce the practice of moral inquiry to absurdity, in practice as well as in principle. (shrink)

Direct download(6 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   13 citations  

No categories

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark  

This paper presents a conception of the self partially in terms of a particular notion of preference. It develops a coherentist account of when one's preferences are "authorized", or sanctioned as one's own, and presents acoherencetheory of autonomous action. The view presented solves certain problems with hierarchical accounts of freedom, such as Harry Frankfurt's.

Direct download(8 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   66 citations  

In this paper I examine five essential themes in Brand Blanshard'scoherencetheory of truth. Blanshard defines truth in terms of the rational or the interdependence of concepts, where concepts determine objects of experience rather than merely conform to them. On this view, truth is contextual and is the approximation of thought to reality or the systemization of the two ends - the immanent and transcendent. I raise some worries for this account of truth, foremost of which is (...) the worry that it commits us to a deep-seated skepticism, both theoretical and practical. In order to be able to tell when the immanent end is achieved and if it is making progress towards the transcendent end (i.e., when the ultimate systematization is realized), we require an omniscient standpoint of cosmic order or overarching system of beliefs. While this seems possible in principle it is not so in practice. (shrink)

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark  

As an approach to aTheory of Everything a framework for developing a coherenttheory of mathematics and physics together is described. The main characteristic of such atheory is discussed: thetheory must be valid and and sufficiently strong, and it must maximally describe its own validity and sufficient strength. The mathematical logical definition of validity is used, and sufficient strength is seen to be a necessary and useful concept. The requirement of maximal description of (...) its own validity and sufficient strength may be useful to reject candidate coherent theories for which the description is less than maximal. Other aspects of a coherenttheory discussed include universal applicability, the relation to the anthropic principle, and possible uniqueness. It is suggested that the basic properties of the physical and mathematical universes are entwined with and emerge with a coherenttheory. Support for this includes the indirect reality status of properties of very small or very large far away systems compared to moderate sized nearby systems. Discussion of the necessary physical nature of language includes physical models of language and a proof that the meaning content of expressions of any axiomatizabletheory seems to be independent of the algorithmic complexity of thetheory. Gödel maps seem to be less useful for a coherenttheory than for purely mathematical theories because all symbols and words of any language must have representations as states of physical systems already in the domain of a coherenttheory. (shrink)

Direct download(5 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   6 citations  

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   24 citations  

In this paper, we provide a new formulation of acoherencetheory of truth using the resources of the partial structures approach − in particular the notions of partial structure and quasi-truth. After developing this new formulation, we apply the resultingtheory to the philosophy of mathematics, and argue that it can be used to develop a new account of nominalism in mathematics. This application illustrates the strength and usefulness of the proposed formulation of acoherence (...)theory of truth. (shrink)

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark  

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   30 citations  

Arguments pro and contra convergent realism - underdetermination oftheory by observational evidence and pessimistic meta-induction from past falsity- are considered. It is argued that, to meet the counter-arguments challenge, convergent realism should be considerably changed with a help of modification of the propositions from this meta-programme’s “hard core” and “protecting belt”. Maybe one of the ways out is to turn to the coherenttheory of truth. Some of the works of Hegel (as interpreted by Merab Mamardashvili and (...) Alexandre Kojev), Husserl and Heidegger can help to dig still deeper into the background of thistheory. Key words: Husserl, Heidegger, Hegel, convergent realism, internal realism, coherenttheory of truth. -/- . (shrink)

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark  

Export citation   Bookmark   516 citations  

Direct download(4 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   31 citations  

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   38 citations  

No categories

Export citation   Bookmark   31 citations  

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   32 citations  

A satisfactorytheory of knowledge in which the shortcomings of a pure externalist account are avoided and in which the Gettier problem is solved should consist in a combination of externalist and internalist components. The internalist component should guarantee that the epistemic subject has cognitive access to the justifying grounds of her belief. And the externalist component should guarantee that the justification of her belief does not depend on any false statement. Keith Lehrer'scoherencetheory of knowledge (...) as undefeated justification is an example of such an internalist-externalist analysis of knowledge. But nevertheless, Lehrer's account leads to unintended results. Therefore, it is argued that a satisfactorycoherencetheory of knowledge must also be based on a gradual notion of systematiccoherence. (shrink)

Direct download(5 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   7 citations  

Direct download(5 more)   Export citation   Bookmark  

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   1 citation  

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark  

It is easy to fall for a conceptual beauty and simplicity of thecoherencetheory of truth. But the texts in which its foundations were for the first time explicitly developed are rich in subtleties, defying a consistent interpretation and inviting various forms of criticism. That is why the following study will take one more look at the writings of Harold H. Joachim and Brand Blanshard, in order to prove that in the analyses which they proposed there is (...) an additional, so far unrecognised element – namely the process of translation – which plays a crucial role in making their accounts valid and complete. Initially then, the article will specify how the notion of translation should be here understood. Next, key postulates of both theories will be recalled, with an indication of several potential inconsistencies which they might entail. Finally, the analysis exposes translative ground of each reconstructed model. What will be thereby underscored, is not only the interpretative depth of Joachim’s and Blanshard’s legacy, but also significance of translation for the philosophical enquiry into the nature of truth. (shrink)

No categories

Direct download(4 more)   Export citation   Bookmark  

We present a cut-free sequent calculus for a class of first-order theories in negation normal form which include coherent and co-coherent theories alike. All structural rules, including cut, are admissible.

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark  

Export citation   Bookmark   98 citations  

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   8 citations  

This book offers a comprehensive approach to moral experience. It respects the many dimensions of our moral life which elude the traditional philosophical theories that deal exclusively with principles, consequences, virtues, or some other single dimension. Working from a critique of such traditions, the book shows how to integrate their values in a dynamiccoherence. Thus, it is not just another ethicaltheory, but a new level of philosophizing in ethics which rewards the reader with an enlarged and (...) enriched vision of our complexity as moral beings. (shrink)

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   1 citation  

This work attempts to develop a workable formaltheory ofcoherence that avoids the objections traditionally advanced against the earliest versions of thetheory. Basically it construes thecoherencetheory as a criterial rather than definitional approach to truth, i.e., as furnishing a criterion rather than a definition of truth. The problem of criterion is seen as a problem not of guaranteeing but of authorizing criterion.Coherence is a criterion applying to a set of (...) propositions that satisfies the conditions of consistency and connectiveness of the systemic sort. A detailed logical machinery is developed. The pivotal concept is the notion of data as a truth-candidate, "a proposition to be taken not as true, but as potentially or presumptively true.". (shrink)

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark  

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   2 citations  

I argue that coherentists can admit that there are facts about what systems of beliefs communities accept, without being committed to the claim that these facts are the truth conditions of sentences about what communities accept. (edited).

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark  

Export citation   Bookmark   3 citations  

Export citation   Bookmark  

In this paper I am primarily interested in establishing that acoherencetheory of truth is conceptually incoherent. Although my primary concern is with thecoherencetheory of truth, I shall point out that the problem I raise has a striking parallel in a now well-known objection tocoherence theories of justification (an objection that, ironically, was brought to the fore by a proponent of acoherencetheory of justification, Laurence Bonjour).

No categories

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   1 citation  

No categories

Export citation   Bookmark  

Export citation   Bookmark   1 citation  

Coherence theorists have universally defined justification as a relation only among (the contents of) belief states, in contradistinction to other theories, such as some versions of founda­tionalism, which define justification as a relation on belief states and appearance states.

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   23 citations  

The problem of how mathematics and physics are related at a foundational level is of interest. The approach taken here is to work towards a coherenttheory of physics and mathematics together by examining thetheory experiment connection. The role of an impliedtheory hierarchy and use of computers in comparingtheory and experiment is described. The main idea of the paper is to tighten thetheory experiment connection by bringing physical theories, as mathematical structures (...) over C, the complex numbers, closer to what is actually done in experimental measurements and computations. The method replaces C by C n which is the set of pairs, R n,I n, of n figure rational numbers in some basis. The properties of these numbers are based on those of numerical measurement outcomes for continuous variables. A model of space and time based on R n is discussed. The model is scale invariant with regions of constant step size interrupted by exponential jumps. A method of taking the limit n→∞ to obtain locally flat continuum-based space and time is outlined. Also R n based space is invariant under scale transformations. These correspond to expansion and contraction of space relative to a flat background. The location of the origin, which is a space and time singularity, does not change under these transformations. Some properties of quantum mechanics, based on C n and on R n space are briefly investigated. (shrink)

Direct download(8 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   3 citations  

Recent critics of thecoherencetheory of truth (notably Ralph Walker) have alleged that thetheory is incoherent, since its defence presupposes the correctness of the contrary correspondencetheory of truth. Coherentists must specify the system of propositions with which true propositons cohere (the specified system). Generally, coherentists claim that the specified system is a system composed of propositions believed by a community. Critics of coherentism maintain that the coherentist’s assertions about which system is the specified (...) system must be true, not because they cohere with a system of beliefs, but because of facts about what a community believes. I argue that coherentists can admit that there are facts about what systems of beliefs communities accept, without being committed to the claim that these facts are the truth conditions of sentences about what communities accept. (shrink)

Direct download(4 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   13 citations  

Export citation   Bookmark   38 citations  

Haig Khatchadourian is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukie. He received his PhD in philosophy from Duke University and has been awarded several prizes for poetry and literary essays. In 1973 he received the Outstanding Educator of America Award.

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark  

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark  

... View (i) The Thesis of Essential Contestedness The view that freedom and other ideals such as justice are essentially contested is important, ...

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   10 citations  

In this paper I am primarily interested in establishing that acoherencetheory of truth is conceptually incoherent. Although my primary concern is with thecoherencetheory of truth, I shall point out that the problem I raise has a striking parallel in a now well-known objection tocoherence theories of justification (an objection that, ironically, was brought to the fore by a proponent of acoherencetheory of justification, Laurence Bonjour).

Direct download(5 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   4 citations  

1. Introduction. In recent years Brand Blanshard’s formulation of thecoherencetheory of truth, as he articulated it in The Nature of Thought, has come under formidable attack by Professor Nicholas Rescher of the University of Pittsburgh. In his otherwise excellent book, TheCoherenceTheory of Truth, later excerpted for P. A. Schilpp’s Library of Living Philosophers volume on Professor Blanshard, he criticizes Blanshard on two main counts.

Direct download(4 more)   Export citation   Bookmark  

Although its use is not universal, there is a map of the logical space of theories of truth that is widely applied. According to this map, the most foundational divide amongst theories of truth is that between deflationary and inflationary theories, where, roughly, the former hold that truth is an insubstantial, logical property of little philosophical interest and the latter that it is a substantial property suitable for philosophical attention. Amongst the inflationary theories, there are other fundamental divisions. For example, (...) on the one hand, correspondence theorists hold that the truth of a proposition is a matter of the proposition’s standing in a relation to something else which is not a proposition, such as a fact. On the other hand,coherence theorists hold that the truth of a proposition is a matter of its relations to other propositions. And again, pragmatists hold that the truth of a proposition is a matter of its being useful to believe. Throughout the twentieth century, philosophers used one or other version of this map to orient themselves and their students in the often complex and confusing debates about truth, even while acknowledging that the map may be incomplete in crucial respects (it does not include functionalist and pluralist views, for example). Our objection to the map is not that it is incomplete—although it obviously is—, but that it needs to be radically redrawn. In particular, the familiar division betweencoherence theories and correspondence theories needs to be rethought. Thecoherencetheory is so often glibly dismissed as absurd that labelling someone as acoherence theorist is often seen as reason enough to ignore them.1 While none of the philosophers usually so labelled should be ignored, we shall argue (§3) that none of them actually held this view anyway. The difficulty—perhaps impossibility—of finding a genuinecoherence theorist of truth strikes us as more than just an indication that this is a rare animal. Rather, it suggests the possibility of something significant, namely, that the only occupant of this position in historical space is a set of slogans; this would give us some reason to suppose that the logical space of theories is just as empty at this point.. (shrink)

Export citation   Bookmark  

No categories

Export citation   Bookmark   1 citation  

Direct download(5 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   5 citations  

Against blanshard's classic argument forcoherence, i maintain thatcoherence is neither the sole criterion nor nature of truth. in the face of blanshard's insistence that, since truth cannot be a matter of correspondence it must necessarily be a matter ofcoherence, i propose and defend a third option which combines the two polar positions. i develop this option through analysis of kant's writings on truth.

Direct download(5 more)   Export citation   Bookmark   1 citation  

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark  

Epistemic Analysis, as I conceive of it, is concerned with the analysis of knowledge. The precincts of my concern have, however, been determined by the ...

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   7 citations  

Direct download(3 more)   Export citation   Bookmark