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Full Idea
According to the coherence theory of truth, for our thoughts to be true is not for them to be about objects, but only for them to cohere with one another. This is rather terrifying.
Gist of Idea
The coherence theory says truth is coherence of thoughts, and not about objects
Source
Tim Button (The Limits of Reason [2013], 14.2)
Book Ref
Button,Tim: 'The Limits of Realism' [OUP 2013], p.143
A Reaction
Davidson espoused this view in 1983, but then gave it up. It strikes me as either a daft view of truth, or a denial of truth. The coherence theory of justification, on the other hand, is correct.
| 18692 | Realists believe in independent objects, correspondence, and fallibility of all theories [Button] |
| 18693 | Indeterminacy arguments say if a theory can be made true, it has multiple versions [Button] |
| 18694 | Permutation Theorem: any theory with a decent model has lots of models [Button] |
| 18695 | An ideal theory can't be wholly false, because its consistency implies a true model [Button] |
| 18696 | The vagueness of truthmaker claims makes it easier to run anti-realist arguments [Button] |
| 18697 | A sentence's truth conditions are all the situations where it would be true [Button] |
| 18698 | Predictions give the 'content' of theories, which can then be 'equivalent' or 'adequate' [Button] |
| 18700 | Cartesian scepticism doubts what is true; Kantian scepticism doubts that it is sayable [Button] |
| 18701 | The coherence theory says truth is coherence of thoughts, and not about objects [Button] |