Philosophers' Imprint 13:1-18 (2013)
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Abstract |
Tarski’s pioneering work on truth has been thought by some to motivate a robust, correspondence-style theory of truth, and by others to motivate a deflationary attitude toward truth. I argue that Tarski’s work suggests neither; if it motivates any contemporary theory of truth, it motivates conceptual primitivism, the view that truth is a fundamental, indefinable concept. After outlining conceptual primitivism and Tarski’s theory of truth, I show how the two approaches to truth share much in common. While Tarski does not explicitly accept primitivism, the view is open to him, and fits better with his formal work on truth than do correspondence or deflationary theories. Primitivists, in turn, may rely on Tarski’s insights in motivating their own perspective on truth. I conclude by showing how viewing Tarski through the primitivist lens provides a fresh response to some familiar charges from Putnam and Etchemendy.
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Keywords | Tarski Truth Deflationism Primitivism Correspondence |
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Reprint years | 2013 |
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References found in this work BETA
New Work for a Theory of Universals.David Lewis - 1983 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 61 (4):343-377.
Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge.Karl Raimund Popper - 1962 - London, England: Routledge.
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Citations of this work BETA
Primitivist Theories of Truth: Their History and Prospects.Jeremy Wyatt - 2022 - Philosophy Compass 17 (6):e12832.
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2013-04-16
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779 ( #9,260 of 2,506,408 )
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44 ( #20,014 of 2,506,408 )
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