Online research in philosophy

The aim of this paper is to show that it is the explicativecharacter of Tarski's semantic definition of truth given in his study of 1933 that allows forconsideration of a philosophical background of this definition in the proper sense. Given the explicativecharacter of this definition it is argued that the philosophical tradition that should be taken intoaccount with regard to this philosophical background is the tradition of the Lvov-Warsaw Schoolin its connections with the School of Brentano. As an example of (...) the explanatory power ofconsidering this tradition as far as Tarski's philosophical choices are concerned I use here thenotion of sentence-inscription, i.e., the notion of that entity of which truth is predicated inthe definition in question. One of the consequences of these statements is that philosophicaldiscussions concerning the semantic definition of truth can be regarded from two points ofview. On the one hand, they may take the perspective of its explicational function, i.e., theperspective of its philosophical background. On the other hand, they might consider the philosophicalconsequences of the definition with respect to the goal of the explication, i.e., they may considerits philosophical content independently of its historical background. (shrink)

The question stated in the title of the article splits into two other questions. One is historical: why did Alfred Tarski choose physical objects as truth-bearers in his famous article „On the notion of truth in languages of deductive sciences”? The second is philosophical: are there general reasons for choosing physical objects to play the role of truth-bearers? In the article the thesis put forward by H. Field and J. McDowell, that it is physicalism of Vienna Circle which had led (...) Tarski to his choice, is rejected. Instead, it is argued that the source of Tarski's choice was Brentanian tradition. (shrink)

In the article a historical and systematical presentation of pros and cons of different theories of truth-bearers is contained. Different definitions of truth-bearers are presented. In author's opinion, in the Brentanian tradition metaphysical rather than epistemological arguments for the objectivity of truth are typical.