Skip to main content
Log in

On the Possibility of a Substantive Theory of Truth

  • Published:
Synthese Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The paper offers a new analysis of the difficulties involved in the construction of a general and substantive correspondence theory of truth and delineates a solution to these difficulties in the form of a new methodology. The central argument is inspired by Kant, and the proposed methodology is explained and justified both in general philosophical terms and by reference to a particular variant of Tarski's theory. The paper begins with general considerations on truth and correspondence and concludes with a brief outlook on the “family” of theories of truth generated by the new methodology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Aristotle: 1941, Metaphysics. The Basic Works of Aristotle, R. McKeon (ed.), Random House, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Austin, J. L.: 1956, 'Truth', J. L. Austin: Philosophical Papers, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 85-101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayer, A. J.: 1946, Language, Truth and Logic, 2nd edn. 1st edn.1936, Dover, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayer, A. J.: 1963, 'Truth', The Concept of a Person and Other Essays, Macmillan, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barwise, J.: 1979, 'On Branching Quantifiers in English', Journal of Philosophical Logic 8, 47-80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barwise, J. and R. Cooper: 1981, 'Generalized Quantifiers and Natural Languages', Linguistics and Philosophy 4, 159-219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barwise, J. and S. Feferman (eds.): 1985, Model-Theoretic Logics, Springer Verlag, Berlin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackburn, S.: 1984, Spreading the Word, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boole, G.: 1854, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, Walton & Maberly, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brody, B. A.: 1967, 'Glossary of Logical Terms', The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 5, Macmillan, New York, pp. 57-77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carnap, R.: 1967, The Logical Structure of the World, Routledge & Kegan Paul, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C.: 1859, On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection, John Murray, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, D.: 1967, 'Truth and Meaning', reprinted in Davidson (1984), pp. 17–36.

  • Davidson, D.: 1969, 'True to the Facts', reprinted in Davidson (1984), pp. 37#x2013;54.

  • Davidson, D.: 1970, 'Semantics for Natural Languages', reprinted in Davidson (1984), pp. 55#x2013;64.

  • Davidson, D.: 1973, 'In Defence of Convention T', reprinted in Davidson (1984), pp. 65#x2013;75.

  • Davidson, D.: 1980, Essays on Actions and Events, Clarendon, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, D.: 1984, Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation, Clarendon, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, D.: 1990a, 'The Structure and Content of Truth', Journal of Philosophy 87, 279-328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, D.: 1990b, 'Method and Metaphysics', Manuscript.

  • Davidson, D.: 1996, 'The Folly of Trying to Define Truth', Journal of Philosophy 93, 263-78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Devitt, M.: 1981, Designation, Columbia University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Devitt, M.: 1991, Realism and Truth, 2nd edn. (1st edn. — 1984), Blackwell, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dummett, M.: 1978, 'Realism', Truth & Other Enigmas, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Enderton, H. B.: 1972, A Mathematical Introduction to Logic, Academic Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Etchemendy, J.: 1990, The Concept of Logical Consequence, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Field, H.: 1972, 'Tarski's Theory of Truth', Journal of Philosophy 69, 347-75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Field, H.: 1980, Science Without Numbers, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Förster, E.: 1985, 'Kant's Refutation of Idealism', in A. J. Holland (ed.), Philosophy, Its History & Historiography, Reidel, Dordrecht, pp. 287-303.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frege, G.: 1868, The Foundations of Arithmetic, Northwestern, Evanston, IL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, M.: 1979, 'Truth and Confirmation', Journal of Philosophy 76, 361-82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galison, P. and D. J. Stump (eds.): 1996, The Disunity of Science: Boundaries, Contexts, and Power, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grover, D.: 1992, A Prosentential Theory of Truth, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harman, G.: 1974, 'Meaning and Semantics', in M. K. Munitz and P. K. Unger (eds.), Semantics and Philosophy, New York University Press, New York, pp. 1-16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henkin, L.: 1961, 'Some Remarks on Infinitely Long Formulas', Finitistic Methods: Proc. of the Symposium on Foundations of Mathematics, P.W.N. & Pergamon, New York, pp. 167-183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hintikka, J.: 1973, 'Quantifiers vs. Quantification Theory', Dialectica 27, 329-58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hintikka, J.: 1996, The Principles of Mathematics Revisited, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodges, W.: 1997, 'Compositional Semantics of a Language of Imperfect Information', Logic Journal of the IGPL 5, 539-63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horwich, P.: 1990, Truth, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kant, I.: [1781/7], 1933, Critique of Pure Reason, 1st and 2nd eds. Tr. N. Kemp Smith. Macmillan, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kant, I.: [1800], 1974, Logic. Jäsche ed. Tr. R. Hartman & W. Schwarz, Dover, Mineola, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keenan, E. L.: 1987, 'Unreducible n-ary Quantifiers in Natural Languages', in P. Gärdenfors (ed.), Generalized Quantifiers, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keenan, E. L.: 1995, 'Logical Objects', Manuscript.

  • Kirwan, C.: 1971, 'Notes', Aristotle's Metaphysics, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitcher, P.: 1981, 'Explanatory Unification', Philosophy of Science 48, 507-31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kripke, S.: 1972, Naming & Necessity, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindenbaum A. and A. Tarski: 1934–5, 'On the Limitations of the Means of Expression of Deductive Theories', reprinted in Tarski [1983], 384#x2013;92.

  • Lindström, P.: 1966, 'First Order Predicate Logic with Generalized Quantifiers', Theoria, 32, 86-95.

    Google Scholar 

  • May, R.: 1989, 'Interpreting Logical Form', Linguistics and Philosophy 12, 387-435.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, T.: 1981, 'The Idea of a Logical Constant', Journal of Philosophy 78, 499-523.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mostowski, A.: 1957, 'On a Generalization of Quantifiers', Fundamenta Mathematicae 44, 12-36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peacocke, C.: 1976, 'What is a Logical Constant?', Journal of Philosophy 73, 221-40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, H.: 1975, 'Explanation & Reference', Mind, Language & Reality, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 196-214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, H.: 1977, 'Models and Reality', Realism & Reason, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983, pp. 1-25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, H.: 1978, Meaning and the Moral Sciences, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, H.: 1981, Reason, Truth and History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, H.: 1983, 'Introduction', Realism & Reason, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. vii-xviii.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramsey, F. P.: 1927, 'Facts and Propositions', Proc. of the Aristotelian Soc., Supp. vol. 7, 153-170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Resnik, M. D.: 1990, 'Immanent Truth', Mind 99, 405-24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, B.: 1971, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, Simon & Schuster, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sher, G.: 1991, The Bounds of Logic: A Generalized Viewpoint, MIT, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sher, G.: 1996a, 'Semantics and Logic', in S. Lappin (ed.), The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 511-37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sher, G.: 1996b, 'Did Tarski Commit 'Tarski's Fallacy'?', Journal of Symbolic Logic 61, 653-86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sher, G.: 1997, 'A General Definition of Partially-Ordered (Branching) Generalized Quantifiers', Journal of Philosophical Logic 26, 1-43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sher, G.: Forthcoming, 'The Logical Roots of Indeterminacy', in G. Sher and R. Tieszen (eds.), Between Logic and Intuition: Essays in Honor of Charles Parsons, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

  • Soames, S.: 1984, 'What is a Theory of Truth?', Journal of Philosophy 81, 411-29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strawson, P. F.: 1950, 'Truth', Proc. of the Aristotelian Soc., Supp. vol. 24, 32-53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strawson, P. F.: 1971, 'Truth: A Reconsideration of Austin's Views', Logico — Linguistic Papers, Methuen, New York, pp. 234-49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarski, A.: 1933, 'The Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages', reprinted in Tarski (1983), pp. 152#x2013;278.

  • Tarski, A.: 1936a, 'The Establishment of Scientific Semantics', reprinted in Tarski (1983), pp. 401#x2013;8.

  • Tarski, A.: 1936b, 'On the Concept of Logical Consequence', reprinted in Tarski (1983), pp. 409#x2013;20.

  • Tarski, A.: 1944, 'The Semantic Conception of Truth', Philosophy and Phenom. Research 4, 341-76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tarski, A.: 1986, 'What Are Logical Notions?', History and Philosophy of Logic 7, 143-54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarski, A.: 1983, Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics, 2nd edn. Hackett Indianapolis, IN. 1st ed: 1956.

  • van Benthem, J.: 1986, Essays in Logical Semantics, Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinberg, S.: 1992, Dreams of a Final Theory: The Scientist's Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature, Random House, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westerståhl, D.: 1976, 'Some Philosophical Aspects of Abstract Model Theory', Ph.D Thesis, University of Gothenburg.

  • Westerståhl, D.: 1985, 'Logical Constants in Quantifier Languages', Linguistics & Philosophy 8, 387-413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiggins, D.: 1972, 'On Sentence-Sense, Word-Sense and Difference of Word-Sense', in D. D. Steinberg and L. A. Jakobovits (eds.), Semantics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 14-34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittgenstein, L.: 1958, Philosophical Investigations, 2nd edn. 1st edn. 1953, Blackwell, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, C.: 1992, Truth and Objectivity, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, C.: 1998, 'Truth: A Traditional Debate Reviewed', Manuscript.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sher, G. On the Possibility of a Substantive Theory of Truth. Synthese 117, 133–172 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005068021441

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005068021441

Keywords

Navigation