Combining Texts

Ideas for 'The Philosophy of Philosophy', 'Speaking of Objects' and 'Intro to Contemporary Epistemology'

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5 ideas

3. Truth / C. Correspondence Truth / 3. Correspondence Truth critique
The correspondence theory also has the problem that two sets of propositions might fit the facts equally well [Dancy,J]
     Full Idea: The correspondence theory as well as the coherence theory has the problem of more than one set of truths. Why can't two sets of propositions "fit the facts" equally well?
     From: Jonathan Dancy (Intro to Contemporary Epistemology [1985], 8.2)
Correspondence to the facts is a bad account of analytic truth [Williamson]
     Full Idea: Even if talk of truth as correspondence to the facts is metaphorical, it is a bad metaphor for analytic truth in a way that it is not for synthetic truth.
     From: Timothy Williamson (The Philosophy of Philosophy [2007], 3.1)
     A reaction: A very simple and rather powerful point. Maybe the word 'truth' should be withheld from such cases. You might say that accepted analytic truths are 'conventional'. If that is wrong, then they correspond to natural facts at a high level of abstraction.
3. Truth / D. Coherence Truth / 1. Coherence Truth
Rescher says that if coherence requires mutual entailment, this leads to massive logical redundancy [Dancy,J]
     Full Idea: Rescher complains that if coherence requires mutual entailment, then what is entailed is logically redundant, and the whole system is infected with mutual redundancy.
     From: Jonathan Dancy (Intro to Contemporary Epistemology [1985], 8.1)
If one theory is held to be true, all the other theories appear false, because they can't be added to the true one [Dancy,J]
     Full Idea: From the point of view of someone with a theory every other theory is false, because it cannot be added to the true theory.
     From: Jonathan Dancy (Intro to Contemporary Epistemology [1985], 8.2)
3. Truth / D. Coherence Truth / 2. Coherence Truth Critique
Even with a tight account of coherence, there is always the possibility of more than one set of coherent propositions [Dancy,J]
     Full Idea: No matter how tight our account of coherence we have to admit that there may be more than one set of coherent propositions (as Russell pointed out (1907)).
     From: Jonathan Dancy (Intro to Contemporary Epistemology [1985], 8.2)