Single Idea 5651

[catalogued under 3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 8. Subjective Truth]

Full Idea

Kierkegaard developed the idea of 'truth as subjectivity'; the traditional conceptions of truth - correspondence or coherence - he regarded as equally empty, not because false, but because tautologous; truth ceases to be empty when related to a subject.

Gist of Idea

Traditional views of truth are tautologies, and truth is empty without a subject

Source

report of Søren Kierkegaard (Either/Or: a fragment of life [1843]) by Roger Scruton - Short History of Modern Philosophy Ch.13

Book Reference

Scruton,Roger: 'A Short History of Modern Philosophy' [ARK 1985], p.189


A Reaction

It strikes me that the correspondence theory of truth also involves a subject. If you become too obsessed with the subject, you lose the concept of truth. You need a concept of the non-subject too. Truth concerns the contents of thought.