Uncovering the norms of truth : a meta-theoretic inquiry

• Main Author: Terzian, Giulia
• Published: University of Bristol 2012
• Subjects: 121
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.559271

The object of study in my thesis are modern formal theories of truth. Against the back- ground of a vast literature, I survey the landscape from a met a-theoretic perspective, to ask the questions: What are the norms underlying theories of truth? What is the relation between the formal desiderata underlying a theory of truth, and the account of our in- tuitions about truth offered by that same theory? Is there a correct, or recomrnendable, methodology for constructing a theory of truth? To address these and related issues, in the first chapter I outline a proposal of what kinds of principles we should look for, when we look for the norms underlying a given theory of truth. Subsequently, I survey some of the most important of today's theories of truth, seeking to uncover their underlying norms. This occupies the main body of the thesis. In the last chapter, I bring together the results of my investigation. All the norms uncovered so far are collected into a unique list, from which a number of sublists are extracted that satisfy the condition of being maximal consistent. Each sublist is assessed as a candidate theory of truth. The results of these analyses inform a more concrete answer to some of the initial philosophical and methodological questions.