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Full Idea
Imagine being in a community which had no concept of truth; ..you cannot disquote on p and hence form beliefs about the world as a result of testimony, since you lack the device of disquotation that is the essence of truth.
Clarification
'Disquotation' is moving from 'p' (in quotation marks, the proposition) to p (the fact)
Gist of Idea
Without the disquotation device for truth, you could never form beliefs from others' testimony
Source
Colin McGinn (Logical Properties [2000], Ch.5)
Book Ref
McGinn,Colin: 'Logical Properties' [OUP 2003], p.101
A Reaction
Whether his theory is right or not, the observation that testimony is the really crucial area where we must have a notion of truth is very good. How about 'truth is what turns propositions into beliefs'?
| 6022 | Someone who says 'it is day' proposes it is day, and it is true if it is day [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 6087 | Without the disquotation device for truth, you could never form beliefs from others' testimony [McGinn] |
| 6086 | Truth is the property of propositions that makes it possible to deduce facts [McGinn] |
| 6345 | Minimalism is incoherent, as it implies that truth both is and is not a property [Boghossian, by Horwich] |
| 4751 | Maybe there is no more to be said about 'true' than there is about the function of 'and' in logic [Engel] |
| 17990 | Instances of minimal truth miss out propositions inexpressible in current English [Hofweber] |
| 4687 | Minimal theories of truth avoid ontological commitment to such things as 'facts' or 'reality' [PG] |