Please summarize and explain the coherence and the correspondence theories of truth. Which theory, if either,...

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Psychology

Please summarize and explain the coherence and thecorrespondence theories of truth. Which theory, if either, do youthink does a better job of explaining what we mean when we say thata statement is true?

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The Coherence Theory of Truth A coherence theory of truth states that the truth of any true proposition consists in its coherence with some specified set of propositions The coherence theory differs from its principal competitor the correspondence theory of truth in two essential respects The competing theories give conflicting accounts of the relation that propositions bear to their truth conditions In this article proposition is not used in any technical sense It simply refers to the bearers of truth values whatever they may be According to one the relation is coherence according to the other it is correspondence The two theories also give conflicting accounts of truth conditions According to the coherence theory the truth conditions of propositions consist in other propositions The correspondence theory in contrast states that the truth conditions of propositions are not in general propositions but rather objective features of the world Even the correspondence theorist holds that propositions about propositions have propositions as their truth conditions Although the coherence and correspondence theories are fundamentally opposed in this way they both present in contrast to deflationary theories of truth a substantive conception of truth That is unlike deflationary theories the coherence and correspondence theories both hold that truth is a property of propositions that can be analysed in terms of the sorts of truthconditions propositions have and the relations propositions stand in to these conditions Versions of the Coherence Theory of Truth Arguments for Coherence Theories of Truth Criticisms of Coherence Theories of Truth New Objections to Coherentism Bibliography Academic Tools Other Internet Resources Related Entries 1 Versions of the Coherence Theory of Truth The coherence theory of truth has several versions These versions differ on two major issues Different versions of the theory give different accounts of the coherence relation Different varieties of the theory also give various accounts of the set or sets of propositions with which true propositions cohere Such a set will be called a specified set According to some early versions of the coherence theory the coherence relation is simply consistency On this view to say that a proposition coheres with a specified set of propositions is to say that the proposition is consistent with the set This account of coherence is unsatisfactory for the following reason Consider two propositions which do not belong to a specified set These propositions could both be consistent with a specified set and yet be inconsistent with each other If coherence is consistency the coherence theorist would have to claim that both propositions are true but this is impossible A more plausible version of the coherence theory states that the coherence relation is some form of entailment Entailment can be understood here as strict logical entailment or entailment in some looser sense According to this version a proposition coheres with a set of propositions if and only if it is entailed by members of the set Another more plausible version of the theory held for example in Bradley 1914 is that coherence is mutual explanatory support between propositions The second point on which coherence theorists coherentists for short differ is the constitution of the specified set of propositions Coherentists generally agree that the specified set consists of propositions believed or held to be true They differ on the questions of who believes the propositions and when At one extreme coherence theorists can hold that the specified set of propositions is the largest consistent set of propositions currently believed by actual people For such a version of the theory see Young 1995 According to a moderate position the specified set consists of those propositions which will be believed when people like us with finite cognitive capacities have reached some limit of inquiry For such a coherence theory see Putnam 1981 At the other extreme coherence theorists can maintain that the specified set contains the propositions which would be believed by an omniscient being Some idealists seem to accept this account of the specified set If the specified set is a set actually believed or even a set which would be believed by people like us at some limit of inquiry coherentism involves the rejection of realism about truth Realism about truth involves acceptance of the principle of bivalence according to which every proposition is either See Answer

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