Ideas from 'Dialogue on Things and Words' by Gottfried Leibniz [1677], by Theme Structure
[found in 'Leibniz Selections' by Leibniz,Gottfried (ed/tr Wiener,Philip P.) [Scribners 1951,]].
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3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 5. Truth Bearers
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Truth is a characteristic of possible thoughts
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Full Idea:
Truth really belongs to the class of thoughts which are possible.
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From:
Gottfried Leibniz (Dialogue on Things and Words [1677], p.7)
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A reaction:
I like the fact that this ties truth to 'thoughts', rather than peculiar abstract unthought entities called 'propositions', but I take it that thoughts which are possible but not thought will thereby not exist, so they can't be true.
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True and false seem to pertain to thoughts, yet unthought propositions seem to be true or false
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Full Idea:
B: I concede that truth and falsity both pertain to thoughts and not to things. A: But this contradicts your previous opinion that a proposition remains true even when you are not thinking about it.
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From:
Gottfried Leibniz (Dialogue on Things and Words [1677], p.7)
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A reaction:
I don't trigger the truth of a proposition by thinking about it - I see that it is true. But I dislike the idea that reality is full of propositions, which seems to be mad metaphysics. So I deny unthought propositions are true, because there aren't any.
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