Truth and Its Nature (if Any)

The nature of truth is one of the central philosophical problems of all time. Truth and Its Nature (if Any) draws together contributions from outstanding analytic philosophers who approach the problem within the context established by the results of Alfred Tarski. The main focus of the majority of the contributions is on the recent debate between the 'deflationist' denigration of the truth predicate into a mere contentless grammatical device and 'inflationists', who insist, on the contrary, that truth is a crucially deep and substantial concept. The book is divided into four parts. The first is devoted to a reconsideration of some of the classical ideas about truth (especially those of Frege, James and Carnap). The second concentrates on Tarski and on ways to interpret his achievements from our current perspective. The third discusses Donald Davidson's 'inflationist' approach to truth and on reasons for seeing truth as substantial. The fourth concentrates on the 'deflationist' approach of Paul Horwich.