Truth from the Agent Point of View

Bibliographic Data

ID10690839
AuthorsMatthew Shields (0000-0003-0142-0464, Wake Forest University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume73
Issue4
Pages1205-1225
Publication date2023-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Philosophical Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8094 • E-ISSN: 1467-9213
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/pq/pqac072
OpenAlexW4308918381
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited27

I defend a novel pragmatist account of truth that I call ‘truth from the agent point of view’ or ‘agential truth’, drawing on insights from Hilary Putnam. According to the agential view, as inquirers, when we take something to be truth-apt, we are taking ourselves and all other thinkers to be accountable to getting right a shared target that is independent of any individual's or community's view of that target. That we have this relationship to truth is what enables our practices of disagreement and agreement, even when subject to the glare of self-conscious reflection, and represents a crucial ingredient in our capacity for rational thought. The resulting account shares elements with Huw Price's and Cheryl Misak's views, but also has important advantages over both. It also yields a surprising conclusion—that our best pragmatist account of truth may well be a version of the correspondence theory of truth

Coherence theory of truth · Epistemology · Linguistics · Point (geometry) · Pragmatic theory of truth · Pragmatism · Subject (documents) · Truth value · Computer Science · Mathematics · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education · Wittgensteinian philosophy and applications

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