![]() ![]() To determine if this is true, the child screens the idea through the belief system that he already has in place: he believes his teacher is honest, and he believes his experience is trustworthy-every time his teacher adds two blocks to the two already on the table, he counts four. To illustrate how the coherence theory of truth works, we can think of a child being told that 2 + 2 = 4. ![]() Philosophers who have held to the coherence theory of truth include Leibniz, Spinoza, and Hegel. According to the coherence theory of truth, that which is false can be identified by the contradictions it raises within an existing framework of belief. Looked at together, all the various parts of the belief system cohere, or unite, and this provides the basis for truth, at least within that set of beliefs. That is, we can know that an idea is “true” when it fits logically into a larger, more complex system of beliefs without contradicting anything. (ed., 1962), Dictionary of Philosophy, Littlefield, Adams, and Company, Totowa, NJ.The coherence theory of truth, or coherentism, asserts that truth is found in its coherence with a particular set of propositions. (1992), Theories of Truth, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Runes (ed.), Dictionary of Philosophy, Littlefield, Adams, and Company, Totowa, NJ. (1978), The Web of Belief, Random House, New York, NY, Chapter VIII. Runes (ed.), Dictionary of Philosophy, Littlefield, Adams, and Company, Totowa, NJ, p. 58. Cornelius (1962), "Coherence Theory of Truth", in Dagobert D. ↑ The Correspondence Theory of Truth (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).↑ Harold Henry Joachim (1868-1938) (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy).↑ Elizabeth Millan, Friedrich Schlegel and the Emergence of Romantic Philosophy, SUNY Press, 2012, p.↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 The Coherence Theory of Truth (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).The main problem for a coherence theory of truth, then, is how to specify just this particular set, given that the truth of which beliefs are actually held can only be determined by means of coherence. However, what most coherence theorists are concerned with is not all possible beliefs, but the set of beliefs that people actually hold. He maintained that since both a belief and its negation will, individually, cohere with at least one set of beliefs, this means that contradictory beliefs can be shown to be true according to coherence theory, and therefore that the theory cannot work. Perhaps the best-known objection to a coherence theory of truth is Bertrand Russell's. Exponents of this view infer that the most complete truth is a property solely of a unique coherent system, called the absolute, and that humanly knowable propositions and systems have a degree of truth that is proportionate to how fully they approximate this ideal. Others of this school of thought, for example, Brand Blanshard, hold that this whole must be so interdependent that every element in it necessitates and even entails every other element. In this view, a proposition is true to the extent that it is a necessary constituent of a systematically coherent whole. ![]() Joachim (the philosopher credited with the definitive formulation of the theory, in his book The Nature of Truth, published in 1906), truth is a systematic coherence that involves more than logical consistency. To state it in the reverse, that "truth" exists only within a system, and doesn't exist outside of a system.Īccording to another version by H. ![]() Coherence theories of truth claim that coherence and consistency are important features of a theoretical system, and that these properties are sufficient to its truth. Ideas like this are a part of the philosophical perspective known as confirmation holism. It is the "theory of knowledge which maintains that truth is a property primarily applicable to any extensive body of consistent propositions, and derivatively applicable to any one proposition in such a system by virtue of its part in the system". VarietiesĪccording to one view, the coherence theory of truth regards truth as coherence within some specified set of sentences, propositions or beliefs. In contemporary philosophy, several epistemologists have significantly contributed to and defended the theory, primarily Brand Blanshard (who gave the earliest characterization of the theory in contemporary times) and Nicholas Rescher. However, Spinoza and Kant have also been interpreted as defenders of the correspondence theory of truth. In modern philosophy, the coherence theory of truth was defended by Baruch Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Harold Henry Joachim (who is credited with the definitive formulation of the theory). ![]()
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