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Single Idea 19197

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

Full Idea

Truth can't be eliminated from universal statements saying all sentences of a certain type are true, or from the proof that 'all consequences of true sentences are true'. It is also needed if we can't name the sentence ('Plato's first sentence is true').

Gist of Idea

Truth can't be eliminated from universal claims, or from particular unspecified claims

Source

Alfred Tarski (The Semantic Conception of Truth [1944], 16)

Book Ref

'Semantics and the Philosophy of Language', ed/tr. Linsky,Leonard [University of Illinois 1972], p.31


A Reaction

This points to the deflationary view of truth, if its only role is in talking about other sentences in this way. Tarski gives the standard reason for rejecting the Redundancy view.


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]