Single Idea 8828

[catalogued under 3. Truth / E. Pragmatic Truth / 1. Pragmatic Truth]

Full Idea

Truth, in the only sense in which we have a vital and working notion of it, is rational acceptability.

Gist of Idea

Truth is rational acceptability

Source

Hilary Putnam (Why Reason Can't be Naturalized [1981])

Book Reference

'Epistemology - An Anthology', ed/tr. Sosa,E. /Kim,J. [Blackwell 2000], p.315


A Reaction

I smell a circularity somewhere in there, probably in 'rational', though it could be in 'acceptable'. Putnams's views on truth tend to shift a lot. He denies that evolutionary survival is a criterion.