Single Idea 14408

[catalogued under 3. Truth / B. Truthmakers / 5. What Makes Truths / a. What makes truths]

Full Idea

It is not always obvious what (if anything) a truth is about, in the sense of 'about' relevant to Truthmaker and truth-supervenient-on-being. Prior says 'Queen Anne is dead' is not about Queen Anne, and may be about the Earth.

Gist of Idea

Truthmaker needs truths to be 'about' something, and that is often unclear

Source

Trenton Merricks (Truth and Ontology [2007], 6.III)

Book Reference

Merricks,Trenton: 'Truth and Ontology' [OUP 2007], p.137


A Reaction

A very nice and rather subtle objection to the Truthmaker thesis. Specifying the truthmaker for a given truth looks like a doddle in simple cases, but clearly it can become extremely elusive in other cases.

Related Idea

Idea 14414 I am a truthmaker for 'that a human exists', but is it about me? [Merricks]