Interesting try, ultimately again self erasing, since truth 1 no longer
refers to truth but anything John wishes to call it, then John wins the
argument by philosophical edict or linguistic gymnastics. The sentence the
"earth is flat" is true if by 'flat' we mean 'round'. Maybe though it might
be good to discuss what people mean by 'truth'. Here I think John's
anthropcentrism surfaces when he defines truth (with a capital T I presume) as:
where #2 refers to attempts to finalize our notions
>of nature, of the human essence, of our relation with the cosmos, and so
>on.
If this were to be what people meant by truth with a capital T then I would
agree with John that no such final once and for all truth exists (not least
because the world, both natural and social is constantly changing) Truth, as
John defines it, is dependent upon some relationship to the Human (apologies
in advance to all the anti-humanists out there). On my understanding truth
has an existence independently of human existence. Thus, if there is a
planet somewhere called Klingon it has a certain form independent of whether
or not we are aware of it. Truth does indeed have many meanings but you
cannot logically refer to the same thing in one sentence and both deny it
and affirm it.
the fun example trades on this since truth only occurs once in the sentence.
Besides, the fact that we cannot give the liar a way out of his/her dilemma
is not something that concerns the issue of truth but one of the tricks
langauge plays on us. Truth resides in the, fact or otherwise, of whether or
not the liar always lies.
If they don't always lie the sentence is false, not true.
The affirmation of a truth independent of particular instances of its
articulation, is as Russell said, the only thing that stops us from getting
really arrogant.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
Colin Wight
Department of International Politics
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
Wales
SY23 3DA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
refers to truth but anything John wishes to call it, then John wins the
argument by philosophical edict or linguistic gymnastics. The sentence the
"earth is flat" is true if by 'flat' we mean 'round'. Maybe though it might
be good to discuss what people mean by 'truth'. Here I think John's
anthropcentrism surfaces when he defines truth (with a capital T I presume) as:
where #2 refers to attempts to finalize our notions
>of nature, of the human essence, of our relation with the cosmos, and so
>on.
If this were to be what people meant by truth with a capital T then I would
agree with John that no such final once and for all truth exists (not least
because the world, both natural and social is constantly changing) Truth, as
John defines it, is dependent upon some relationship to the Human (apologies
in advance to all the anti-humanists out there). On my understanding truth
has an existence independently of human existence. Thus, if there is a
planet somewhere called Klingon it has a certain form independent of whether
or not we are aware of it. Truth does indeed have many meanings but you
cannot logically refer to the same thing in one sentence and both deny it
and affirm it.
the fun example trades on this since truth only occurs once in the sentence.
Besides, the fact that we cannot give the liar a way out of his/her dilemma
is not something that concerns the issue of truth but one of the tricks
langauge plays on us. Truth resides in the, fact or otherwise, of whether or
not the liar always lies.
If they don't always lie the sentence is false, not true.
The affirmation of a truth independent of particular instances of its
articulation, is as Russell said, the only thing that stops us from getting
really arrogant.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
Colin Wight
Department of International Politics
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
Wales
SY23 3DA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------