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Single Idea 15339

[filed under theme 3. Truth / F. Semantic Truth / 1. Tarski's Truth / a. Tarski's truth definition ]

Full Idea

Tarski emancipated truth theory from traditional philosophy, by no longer posing Pilate's question (what is truth? or what is the essence of truth?) but instead 'how is truth used?', 'how does truth function?' and 'how can its functioning be described?'.

Gist of Idea

Tarski gave up on the essence of truth, and asked how truth is used, or how it functions

Source

report of Alfred Tarski (The Concept of Truth for Formalized Languages [1933]) by Leon Horsten - The Tarskian Turn 02.2

Book Ref

Horsten,Leon: 'The Tarskian Turn' [MIT 2011], p.15

A Reaction

Horsten, later in the book, does not give up on the essence of truth, and modern theorists are trying to get back to that question by following Tarski's formal route. Modern analytic philosophy at its best, it seems to me.

The 27 ideas with the same theme [truth defined for formal languages, using 'satisfaction']:

21752 Prior to Gödel we thought truth in mathematics consisted in provability [Gödel, by Quine]
13338 '"It is snowing" is true if and only if it is snowing' is a partial definition of the concept of truth [Tarski]
19180 It is convenient to attach 'true' to sentences, and hence the language must be specified [Tarski]
19181 In the classical concept of truth, 'snow is white' is true if snow is white [Tarski]
19182 Use 'true' so that all T-sentences can be asserted, and the definition will then be 'adequate' [Tarski]
19183 Each interpreted T-sentence is a partial definition of truth; the whole definition is their conjunction [Tarski]
19196 Scheme (T) is not a definition of truth [Tarski]
19198 We don't give conditions for asserting 'snow is white'; just that assertion implies 'snow is white' is true [Tarski]
4699 Tarski made truth relative, by only defining truth within some given artificial language [Tarski, by O'Grady]
19324 Tarski has to avoid stating how truths relate to states of affairs [Kirkham on Tarski]
10672 Tarskian semantics says that a sentence is true iff it is satisfied by every sequence [Tarski, by Hossack]
15339 Tarski gave up on the essence of truth, and asked how truth is used, or how it functions [Tarski, by Horsten]
16302 Tarski did not just aim at a definition; he also offered an adequacy criterion for any truth definition [Tarski, by Halbach]
19135 Tarski enumerates cases of truth, so it can't be applied to new words or languages [Davidson on Tarski]
19138 Tarski define truths by giving the extension of the predicate, rather than the meaning [Davidson on Tarski]
10844 The statement that it is raining perfectly fits the fact that it is raining [Strawson,P]
18951 For scientific purposes there is a precise concept of 'true-in-L', using set theory [Putnam]
2570 The same sentence could be true in one language and meaningless in another, so truth is language-relative [Haack]
13499 Tarski reduced truth to reference or denotation [Field,H, by Hart,WD]
10818 Tarski really explained truth in terms of denoting, predicating and satisfied functions [Field,H]
14965 Truth rests on Elimination ('A' is true → A) and Introduction (A → 'A' is true) [Gupta]
10353 Tarskians distinguish truth from falsehood by relations between members of sets [Kusch]
15340 Tarski Bi-conditional: if you'll assert φ you'll assert φ-is-true - and also vice versa [Horsten]
15354 Tarski's hierarchy lacks uniform truth, and depends on contingent factors [Horsten]
19101 Disquotation is bivalent [Misak]
19096 Disquotationalism resembles a telephone directory [Misak]
19106 Disquotations says truth is assertion, and assertion proclaims truth - but what is 'assertion'? [Misak]