Petros Agapetos
Regular Member
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- Location
- Alberta, Canada
- Ethnic group
- Armenian {South Caucasian}
What is Truth?
An event is a quantified aspect of reality. A fact is an observed event. Truth is a relation between a theory about events and facts. A statement about a relation between events is true if the relation is a fact. For example: “Elephants can be green”. The facts are “elephants” and “greenness”. The ‘can be’ relation is one between events, so the statement is sensible. However, due to contingent natural restrictions, the skin of an elephant cannot be green in our world, so the statement is not true. A state of affairs or a situation is a way the actual world must be in order to make some given proposition about the actual world true. A state of affairs (a situation) is a truth-maker, whereas a proposition is a truth-bearer. Whereas propositions can be true or false, state of affairs either obtain or fail to obtain.
In logic, necessity and sufficiency are implicational relationships between statements. The assertion that one statement is necessary and sufficient condition of another statement means that the former is true if and only if the latter is true. That is, the two statements must either be simultaneously true or simultaneously false. Necessity and sufficiency indicate relations between conditions or state of affairs, not statements.
Truth bearers = beliefs, statements, propositions, judgments, assertions, utterances, sentences, thoughts, ideas, etc.
Truth makers = facts, state of affairs, events, things, tropes, etc.
Correspondence Theory of Truth states:
“X (truth bearer) is true if and only if X corresponds to some Y (truth maker)”
“X (truth bearer) is false if and only if X does NOT correspond to some Y (truth maker)”.
Basic Fact Theory states, a truth bearer is true if there is a fact about the world that corresponds to the statement of fact. The Basic Fact Theory of Truth implies that anything, even things that do no bear truth, like objects, are false because they do not correspond to a fact, and non-truth-bearers become in fact false. This theory also does not permit more than true/false truth values (bimodal theory of truth).
State of Affairs Theory states, a truth bearer is true if there is a state of affairs that obtains. And under this theory, “X is false if and only if X corresponds to some state of affairs Y that does not obtain”. The state of affairs theory of truth commits one to including state of affairs that do not obtain as true. Also, it does not permit negations of logical truths.
Facts without Being Theory states “X is false if and only if X corresponds to some fact that does not exist”. It might seem that this helps to resolve some issues of falsehood for the basic fact theory, but it commits us to a sort of Meinongian ontology allowing for facts that don’t exist to correspond to truth bearers. This theory allows for objects not to be false and allows for a third truth value other than true/false.
Miscorrespondence Fact Theory states “X is false if and only if X miscorresponds to some fact”. This theory attempts to avoid any commitment to either non-obtaining state of affairs or non-existent facts. However, it is difficult to ascertain whether miscorrespondence is applicable to false truth bearers. Miscorrespondence theory may be insufficient to account for moral truths.
Facts and state of affairs are made up of things like objects, properties, and relations. Truth bearers on the other hand are made up of words, concepts, and other truth bearers. Isomorphic structures are ones that resemble each other in structure, even if they don’t resemble each other in content. The idea of isomorphism as a way to explain correspondence is that truth bearers are built with the same structure as the facts and states of affairs that they correspond to.
“The ant is black” – ‘The ant’ is a particular; ‘is black’ is a predicate, where black is a property.
The truth bearer “The ant is black” can either correspond or miscorresponds to ‘a black ant’.
An event is a quantified aspect of reality. A fact is an observed event. Truth is a relation between a theory about events and facts. A statement about a relation between events is true if the relation is a fact. For example: “Elephants can be green”. The facts are “elephants” and “greenness”. The ‘can be’ relation is one between events, so the statement is sensible. However, due to contingent natural restrictions, the skin of an elephant cannot be green in our world, so the statement is not true. A state of affairs or a situation is a way the actual world must be in order to make some given proposition about the actual world true. A state of affairs (a situation) is a truth-maker, whereas a proposition is a truth-bearer. Whereas propositions can be true or false, state of affairs either obtain or fail to obtain.
In logic, necessity and sufficiency are implicational relationships between statements. The assertion that one statement is necessary and sufficient condition of another statement means that the former is true if and only if the latter is true. That is, the two statements must either be simultaneously true or simultaneously false. Necessity and sufficiency indicate relations between conditions or state of affairs, not statements.
Truth bearers = beliefs, statements, propositions, judgments, assertions, utterances, sentences, thoughts, ideas, etc.
Truth makers = facts, state of affairs, events, things, tropes, etc.
Correspondence Theory of Truth states:
“X (truth bearer) is true if and only if X corresponds to some Y (truth maker)”
“X (truth bearer) is false if and only if X does NOT correspond to some Y (truth maker)”.
Basic Fact Theory states, a truth bearer is true if there is a fact about the world that corresponds to the statement of fact. The Basic Fact Theory of Truth implies that anything, even things that do no bear truth, like objects, are false because they do not correspond to a fact, and non-truth-bearers become in fact false. This theory also does not permit more than true/false truth values (bimodal theory of truth).
State of Affairs Theory states, a truth bearer is true if there is a state of affairs that obtains. And under this theory, “X is false if and only if X corresponds to some state of affairs Y that does not obtain”. The state of affairs theory of truth commits one to including state of affairs that do not obtain as true. Also, it does not permit negations of logical truths.
Facts without Being Theory states “X is false if and only if X corresponds to some fact that does not exist”. It might seem that this helps to resolve some issues of falsehood for the basic fact theory, but it commits us to a sort of Meinongian ontology allowing for facts that don’t exist to correspond to truth bearers. This theory allows for objects not to be false and allows for a third truth value other than true/false.
Miscorrespondence Fact Theory states “X is false if and only if X miscorresponds to some fact”. This theory attempts to avoid any commitment to either non-obtaining state of affairs or non-existent facts. However, it is difficult to ascertain whether miscorrespondence is applicable to false truth bearers. Miscorrespondence theory may be insufficient to account for moral truths.
Facts and state of affairs are made up of things like objects, properties, and relations. Truth bearers on the other hand are made up of words, concepts, and other truth bearers. Isomorphic structures are ones that resemble each other in structure, even if they don’t resemble each other in content. The idea of isomorphism as a way to explain correspondence is that truth bearers are built with the same structure as the facts and states of affairs that they correspond to.
“The ant is black” – ‘The ant’ is a particular; ‘is black’ is a predicate, where black is a property.
The truth bearer “The ant is black” can either correspond or miscorresponds to ‘a black ant’.
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