Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Actualism and Thisness', 'Art and Its Objects' and 'Dialogue on Things and Words'

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2 ideas

3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 5. Truth Bearers
Truth is a characteristic of possible thoughts [Leibniz]
     Full Idea: Truth really belongs to the class of thoughts which are possible.
     From: Gottfried Leibniz (Dialogue on Things and Words [1677], p.7)
     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.
True and false seem to pertain to thoughts, yet unthought propositions seem to be true or false [Leibniz]
     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.
     From: Gottfried Leibniz (Dialogue on Things and Words [1677], 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.