Epistemology

The Nature of Truth

What makes a statement true — what is truth?

Positions

  1. Coherence Theory of Truth

    A proposition is true if and only if it coheres with a comprehensive, consistent system of beliefs.

  2. Correspondence Theory of Truth

    A proposition is true if and only if it corresponds to a fact — to how things mind-independently are.

  3. Deflationary Theory of Truth

    Calling a proposition true adds nothing substantive: to say 'p is true' is just to assert p, so truth is not a substantive property.

  4. Pragmatist Theory of Truth

    A belief is true if it works — if it is what inquiry would ultimately settle on and reliably guides successful action.

    Held by Pragmatism

  5. Protagorean Relativism

    Man is the measure of all things: what seems true to a person is true for that person, and there is no further fact about what is true absolutely.

Methods used to investigate this question

  • Pragmatic Inquiry

    Pragmatic inquiry clarifies a belief through its conceivable practical consequences and tests it within a self-correcting process of experience and investigation.

    Open in Methods

Discussion

To call a belief true is to commend it, but philosophers disagree about what that commendation amounts to. Some hold that truth is a substantive relation between what we say and how the world independently is; others locate it inside our system of beliefs, in the practices of inquiry, or deny that it names any deep property at all.

The correspondence theory ties truth to fact; the coherence theory ties it to fit within a consistent whole; the pragmatist ties it to what inquiry would settle on and what works in practice; the deflationist holds that "is true" adds nothing beyond re-asserting the claim. These are rival accounts of the same thing — what truth is — not different topics.

References