A FEW PUZZLES ABOUT WILLIAM JAMES' THEORY OF TRUTH

ABSTRACT William James makes several major claims about truth: (i) truth means agreement with reality independently of the knower, (ii) truth is made by human beings, (iii) truth can be verified, and (iv) truth is necessarily good. These claims give rise to a few puzzles: (i) and (ii) seem to contradict each other, and each of (ii), (iii), and (iv) has counter-intuitive implications. I argue that Richard Gale's interpretation of James' theory of truth is inadequate in dealing with these puzzles. I propose an alternative interpretation and show how it can solve these puzzles.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hu,Xingming
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas da UFMG 2016
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-512X2016000300803
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