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Single Idea 18973
[filed under theme 3. Truth / D. Coherence Truth / 1. Coherence Truth
]
Full Idea
A new opinion counts as 'true' just in proportion as it gratifies the individual's desire to assimilate the novel in his experience to his beliefs in stock.
Gist of Idea
New opinions count as 'true' if they are assimilated to an individual's current beliefs
Source
William James (Pragmatism - eight lectures [1907], Lec 2)
Book Ref
James,William: 'Pragmatism - eight lectures' [Dover 1995], p.25
A Reaction
Note the tell-tale locution 'counts as' true, rather than 'is' true. The obvious problem is that someone with a big stock of foolish beliefs will 'count as' true some bad interpretation which is gratifyingly assimilated to their current confusions.
The
23 ideas
with the same theme
[truth is when propositions effectively fit together]:
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4298
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All items of possible human knowledge are interconnected, and can be reached by inference
[Descartes]
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2115
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Everything in the universe is interconnected, so potentially a mind could know everything
[Leibniz]
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7077
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The true is the whole
[Hegel]
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23030
|
Truth is a relation to a whole of organised knowledge in the collection of rational minds
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
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4538
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Judgements can't be true and known in isolation; the only surety is in connections and relations
[Nietzsche]
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18972
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Ideas are true in so far as they co-ordinate our experiences
[James]
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18973
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New opinions count as 'true' if they are assimilated to an individual's current beliefs
[James]
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22304
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Truth is conceivability, or the systematic coherence of a significant whole
[Joachim]
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5421
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The coherence theory says falsehood is failure to cohere, and truth is fitting into a complete system of Truth
[Russell]
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19080
|
Coherence tests for truth without implying correspondence, so truth is not correspondence
[Blanshard, by Young,JO]
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19081
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Coherence with a set of propositions suggests we can know the proposition corresponds
[Davidson, by Donnellan]
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19150
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Coherence truth says a consistent set of sentences is true - which ties truth to belief
[Davidson]
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2765
|
Rescher says that if coherence requires mutual entailment, this leads to massive logical redundancy
[Dancy,J]
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2769
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If one theory is held to be true, all the other theories appear false, because they can't be added to the true one
[Dancy,J]
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3585
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Coherence needs positive links, not just absence of conflict
[Williams,M]
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3584
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Justification needs coherence, while truth might be ideal coherence
[Williams,M]
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14713
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Truth in a scenario is the negation in that scenario being a priori incoherent
[Chalmers]
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4738
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The coherence theory says truth is an internal relationship between groups of truth-bearers
[Engel]
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18701
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The coherence theory says truth is coherence of thoughts, and not about objects
[Button]
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19076
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Coherence theories differ over the coherence relation, and over the set of proposition with which to cohere
[Young,JO]
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19077
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Two propositions could be consistent with your set, but inconsistent with one another
[Young,JO]
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19078
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Coherence with actual beliefs, or our best beliefs, or ultimate ideal beliefs?
[Young,JO]
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19084
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Coherent truth is not with an arbitrary set of beliefs, but with a set which people actually do believe
[Young,JO]
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