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Ideas for 'Idealism: a critical survey', 'Philosophical Investigations' and 'Logicism and Ontological Commits. of Arithmetic'

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2 ideas

3. Truth / F. Semantic Truth / 2. Semantic Truth
Truth in a model is more tractable than the general notion of truth [Hodes]
     Full Idea: Truth in a model is interesting because it provides a transparent and mathematically tractable model - in the 'ordinary' rather than formal sense of the term 'model' - of the less tractable notion of truth.
     From: Harold Hodes (Logicism and Ontological Commits. of Arithmetic [1984], p.131)
     A reaction: This is an important warning to those who wish to build their entire account of truth on Tarski's rigorously formal account of the term. Personally I think we should start by deciding whether 'true' can refer to the mental state of a dog. I say it can.
Truth is quite different in interpreted set theory and in the skeleton of its language [Hodes]
     Full Idea: There is an enormous difference between the truth of sentences in the interpreted language of set theory and truth in some model for the disinterpreted skeleton of that language.
     From: Harold Hodes (Logicism and Ontological Commits. of Arithmetic [1984], p.132)
     A reaction: This is a warning to me, because I thought truth and semantics only entered theories at the stage of 'interpretation'. I must go back and get the hang of 'skeletal' truth, which sounds rather charming. [He refers to set theory, not to logic.]