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Single Idea 19153

[filed under theme 3. Truth / H. Deflationary Truth / 1. Redundant Truth ]

Full Idea

Truth is one of the clearest and most basic concepts we have, so it is fruitless to dream of eliminating it in favor of something simpler or more fundamental.

Gist of Idea

Truth is basic and clear, so don't try to replace it with something simpler

Source

Donald Davidson (Truth and Predication [2005], 3)

Book Ref

Davidson,Donald: 'Truth and Predication' [Belknap Harvard 2005], p.55


A Reaction

For redundancy theorists, I suppose, truth would be eliminated in favour of 'assertion'. Replacing it with 'satisfaction' doesn't seem very illuminating. Davidson would say 'reference' is more tricky and elusive than truth.


The 13 ideas with the same theme [truth is an unnecessary meaningless concept]:

That a judgement is true and that we judge it true are quite different things [Peirce]
The property of truth in 'It is true that I smell violets' adds nothing to 'I smell violets' [Frege]
"The death of Caesar is true" is not the same proposition as "Caesar died" [Russell]
"It is true that x" means no more than x [Ramsey]
Truth can't be eliminated from universal claims, or from particular unspecified claims [Tarski]
'It is true that this follows' means simply: this follows [Wittgenstein]
Truth is redundant for single sentences; we do better to simply speak the sentence [Quine]
Asserting the truth of an indexical statement is not the same as uttering the statement [Putnam]
Truth is basic and clear, so don't try to replace it with something simpler [Davidson]
The redundancy theory cannot explain inferences from 'what x said is true' and 'x said p', to p [Horwich]
Truth is dispensable, by replacing truth claims with the sentence itself [Azzouni]
'It's true that Fido is a dog' conjures up a contrast class, of 'it's false' or 'it's unlikely' [Hofweber]
The redundancy theory conflates metalinguistic bivalence with object-language excluded middle [Bourne]