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Single Idea 19194

[from 'The Semantic Conception of Truth' by Alfred Tarski, in 3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 2. Defining Truth ]

Full Idea

A time may come when we find ourselves confronted with several incompatible, but equally clear and precise, conceptions of truth. It will then become necessary to abandon the ambiguous usage of the word 'true', and introduce several terms instead.

Gist of Idea

We may eventually need to split the word 'true' into several less ambiguous terms

Source

Alfred Tarski (The Semantic Conception of Truth [1944], 14)

Book Reference

'Semantics and the Philosophy of Language', ed/tr. Linsky,Leonard [University of Illinois 1972], p.28


A Reaction

There may be a whiff of the pragmatic attitude to truth here, though that view is not necessarily pluralist. Analytic philosophy needs much more splitting of difficult terms into several more focused terms.

Related Idea

Idea 19095 Pragmatic 'truth' is a term to cover the many varied aims of enquiry [Peirce, by Misak]