This is a concise introduction to current philosophical debates about truth. Combining philosophical and technical material, the book is organized around, but not limited to, the view known as deflationism. In clear language, Burgess and Burgess cover a wide range of issues, including the nature of truth, the status of truth-value gaps, the relationship between truth and meaning, relativism and pluralism about truth, and semantic paradoxes from Alfred Tarski to Saul Kripke and beyond. The book provides a rich picture of contemporary philosophical theorizing about truth, one that will be essential reading for philosophy students as well as philosophers specializing in other areas.

Starred (*) technical sections optional

Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii


CHAPTER ONE: Introduction 1
1.1 Traditional Theories 2
1.2 Contemporary Theories 4
1.3 Paradoxes 5
1.4 Plan 7
1.5 Sentences 10
1.6 Propositions 12


CHAPTER TWO: Tarski 16
2.1 "Semantic" Truth 16
2.2 Object Language vs Metalanguage 18
2.3 Recursive Definition 22
2.4* Direct Definition 24
2.5* Self-Reference 28
2.6* Model Theory 29


CHAPTER THREE: Deflationism 33
3.1 Redundancy 34
3.2 Other Radical Theories 38
3.3 Disquotation 41
3.4 Other Moderate Theories 44
3.5 Sloganeering 47
3.6 Reference 49


CHAPTER FOUR: Indeterminacy 52
4.1 Presupposition 53
4.2 Vagueness 54
4.3 Denial, Disqualification, Deviance 55
4.4 Doublespeak, Dependency, Defeatism 59
4.5 Relativity 61
4.6 Local vs Global 65


CHAPTER FIVE: Realism 68
5.1 Realism vs Deflationism 68
5.2 Correspondence Theories 70
5.3 Truthmaker Theories 72
5.4 Physicalism 74
5.5 Utility 77
5.6 Normativity 79


CHAPTER SIX: Antirealism 83
6.1 Meaning and Truth 84
6.2 Davidsonianism 87
6.3 Dummettianism vs Davidsonianism 90
6.4 Dummettianism vs Deflationism 93
6.5 Holism 96
6.6 Pluralism 97


CHAPTER SEVEN: Kripke 102
7.1 Kripke vs Tarski 103
7.2 The Minimum Fixed Point 105
7.3 Ungroundedness 107
7.4* The Transfinite Construction 109
7.5* Revision 112
7.6* Axiomatics 113


CHAPTER EIGHT: Insolubility? 116
8.1 Paradoxical Reasoning 116
8.2 "Revenge" 118
8.3 Logical "Solutions" 120
8.4 "Paraconsistency" 123
8.5 Contextualist "Solutions" 124
8.6 Inconsistency Theories 127


Further Reading 135
Bibliography 143
Index 153