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Single Idea 6336

[filed under theme 3. Truth / H. Deflationary Truth / 2. Deflationary Truth ]

Full Idea

It has been suggested that no deflationary conception of truth could do justice to the fact that we aim for the truth.

Gist of Idea

No deflationary conception of truth does justice to the fact that we aim for truth

Source

Paul Horwich (Truth (2nd edn) [1990], Ch.2.11)

Book Ref

Horwich,Paul: 'Truth (2nd edn)' [OUP 1998], p.46


A Reaction

(He mentions Dummett and Wright). People don't only aim for it - they become very idealistic about it, and sometimes die for it. Personally I think that any study of truth should use as its example police investigations, not philosophical analysis.


The 23 ideas from Paul Horwich

Probability of H, given evidence E, is prob(H) x prob(E given H) / prob(E) [Horwich]
Bayes' theorem explains why very surprising predictions have a higher value as evidence [Horwich]
Analyse counterfactuals using causation, not the other way around [Horwich]
Problems with Goodman's view of counterfactuals led to a radical approach from Stalnaker and Lewis [Horwich]
A priori knowledge (e.g. classical logic) may derive from the innate structure of our minds [Horwich]
Meanings and concepts cannot give a priori knowledge, because they may be unacceptable [Horwich]
Understanding needs a priori commitment [Horwich]
How do we determine which of the sentences containing a term comprise its definition? [Horwich]
A priori belief is not necessarily a priori justification, or a priori knowledge [Horwich]
Meaning is generated by a priori commitment to truth, not the other way around [Horwich]
If we stipulate the meaning of 'number' to make Hume's Principle true, we first need Hume's Principle [Horwich]
Horwich's deflationary view is novel, because it relies on propositions rather than sentences [Horwich, by Davidson]
The common-sense theory of correspondence has never been worked out satisfactorily [Horwich]
No deflationary conception of truth does justice to the fact that we aim for truth [Horwich]
The deflationary picture says believing a theory true is a trivial step after believing the theory [Horwich]
The function of the truth predicate? Understanding 'true'? Meaning of 'true'? The concept of truth? A theory of truth? [Horwich]
The redundancy theory cannot explain inferences from 'what x said is true' and 'x said p', to p [Horwich]
We could know the truth-conditions of a foreign sentence without knowing its meaning [Horwich]
Logical form is the aspects of meaning that determine logical entailments [Horwich]
There are Fregean de dicto propositions, and Russellian de re propositions, or a mixture [Horwich]
Right translation is a mapping of languages which preserves basic patterns of usage [Horwich]
Some correspondence theories concern facts; others are built up through reference and satisfaction [Horwich]
Truth is a useful concept for unarticulated propositions and generalisations about them [Horwich]