back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 19388

[from 'Dialogue on Things and Words' by Gottfried Leibniz, in 3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 5. Truth Bearers ]

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.

Gist of Idea

True and false seem to pertain to thoughts, yet unthought propositions seem to be true or false

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (Dialogue on Things and Words [1677], p.7)

Book Reference

Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Leibniz Selections', ed/tr. Wiener,Philip P. [Scribners 1951], p.7


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.

Related Idea

Idea 19389 Truth is a characteristic of possible thoughts [Leibniz]