Truth-value link

Truth-value link

The principle of truth-value links is a concept in metaphysics discussed in debates between philosophical realism and anti-realism. Philosophers who appeal to truth-value links in order to explain how individuals can come to understand parts of the world that are apparently cognitively inaccessible (the past, the feelings of others, etc.) are called truth-value link realists.

Truth-value link realism

Truth-value link realists argue that our understanding of past-tense statements allows us to grasp the truth-conditions of the statements, even if they are evidence-transcendent. They explain this by noting that it is unproblematic for us to conceptualize a present-tense true statement being true a year from now. In other words, if "It is raining today" is true today, then "It was raining yesterday" will be true tomorrow. Truth-value link realists argue that this same construction can be applied to past-tense statements. For example, "It was raining yesterday" is true today if and only if "It is raining today" "was" true yesterday.

The truth-value link allows us to understand the following. First, suppose that we can understand, in an unproblematic way, truth about a present-tense statement. Assume that it is true, now, when one claims “On 22 May 2006, Student X is writing a paper for her philosophy seminar,” and call it statement A. Suppose that, a year later, someone claims, “On 22 May 2006, Student X was writing a paper for her philosophy seminar,” and call it statement B. According to Dummett’s explication of the truth-value link, “since the statement A is now true, the statement B, made in one year’s time, is likewise true.” [Dummett, Michael, “The Reality of the Past,” in Truth and Other Enigmas (Harvard University Press, 1978), 363.] It is in understanding the truth-value link that one is able to understand what it is for a statement in the past-tense to be true. The truth-value persists in the tense shift – hence the “link.”

Criticisms

Some philosophers, including Michael Dummett and John McDowell, have criticized truth-value link realism. They argue that it is unintelligible to suppose that training in a language can give someone "more" than what is involved in the training, i.e. access to inaccessible realms like the past and the minds of others. More important, they suggest that the realist appeal to the principle of truth-value links does not actually explain how the inaccessible can be cognized. When the truth-value link realist claims that, if "It is raining today" "was" true yesterday, then "It was raining yesterday" "is" true today, he or she is still appealing to an inaccessible realm of the past. In brief, one is attempting to access that which one has already conceded as being inaccessible.

See also

*Crispin Wright
*Philosophical realism
*Anti-realism

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Truth — • Defines ontological, logical, and moral truth Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Truth     Truth     † …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Truth in Science — is a United Kingdom based organization which promotes the Teach the Controversy campaign. [ Teaching the controversy is, of course, also related to the required teaching on Variation, inheritance and evolution under topic Sc2 Life processes and… …   Wikipedia

  • The Value of Science — is a book by the French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher Henri Poincaré. It was published in 1905. The book deals with questions in the philosophy of science and adds detail to the topics addressed by Poincaré s previous book, Science… …   Wikipedia

  • Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations — were made by some U.S. Government officials who claimed that a highly secretive relationship existed between former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the radical Islamist militant organization Al Qaeda from 1992 to 2003, specifically through a… …   Wikipedia

  • Philosophical realism — Contemporary philosophical realism is the belief that our reality, or some aspect of it, is ontologically independent of our conceptual schemes, linguistic practices, beliefs, etc. Realism may be spoken of with respect to other minds, the past,… …   Wikipedia

  • List of topics in epistemology — * A Defence of Common Sense * A priori and a posteriori (philosophy) * Adaptive representation * Aenesidemus * Aenesidemus (book) * Agrippa the Sceptic * Alison Wylie * Alvin Goldman * Analytic synthetic distinction * Androcentrism * Android… …   Wikipedia

  • Michael Dummett — Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett Sir Michael Dummett in 2004 Full name Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett Born June 27, 1925 London Era Con …   Wikipedia

  • TVL — can mean:*TV Licensing a trading name used by BBC subcontractors operating in the UK *Truth value linkTVL can also refer to:*The IATA airport code for Lake Tahoe Airport, California, USA …   Wikipedia

  • Realism — Realism, Realist or Realistic may refer to:The arts*Realism (arts), the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life *Realism (dramatic arts), a movement towards greater fidelity to real life *Realism (visual arts), a style of painting… …   Wikipedia

  • NetWeaver Developer — is a knowledgebase development system. This article gives a brief history of the system, summarizes key features of the software, is a bit of a primer, describing basic attributes of a NetWeaver knowledgebase, and provides secondary references… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”