Epistemology · Metaphysics

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.

    Held by British Idealism

  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 is what inquiry, pursued far enough, would settle on, or if it 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.

    Held by Sophism

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