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Full Idea
We cannot hope to underpin the concept of truth with something more transparent or easier to grasp.
Gist of Idea
Truth cannot be reduced to anything simpler
Source
Donald Davidson (The Folly of Trying to Define Truth [1999], p.21)
Book Ref
Davidson,Donald: 'Truth, Language and History' [OUP 2005], p.21
A Reaction
I suppose precise accounts of correspondence or coherence are offered as replacements for truth, but neither of those ever seem to be possible. I agree with accepting truth as a primitive.
23294 | It is common to doubt truth when discussing it, but totally accept it when discussing knowledge [Davidson] |
23295 | Truth cannot be reduced to anything simpler [Davidson] |
23296 | We can elucidate indefinable truth, but showing its relation to other concepts [Davidson] |
23297 | The language to define truth needs a finite vocabulary, to make the definition finite [Davidson] |
23298 | Neither Aristotle nor Tarski introduce the facts needed for a correspondence theory [Davidson] |