Truth
Coherence theory of truth P is true iff P coheres with a specified set of propositions.
Pragmatic theory of truth P is true iff P is useful to believe.
Argument 1 is a form of abductive reasoning in which we can continue to believe a mind-independent reality exists because of its coherence with our set of core propositions – things such as the sun will rise tomorrow – and because of our ability to repeat experiments with the same results.
Argument 2 is pragmatic in that it follows the theory laid out by William James which is best expressed by his example of a squirrel and human running around a tree. 3 William James asks whether the human circles the squirrel or the squirrel circles the human and shows that, since there is no practical difference in believing one or the other, the ‘dispute is idle’.
Pragmatism – my positive claim
In an extension of William James’ example of the squirrel and man which he used to discuss idle disputes, I have created the example of a game of ‘it’ or ‘tag’ to explore truth as a human invention. Imagine you are playing a game of tag. The moment in which the ‘tagger’ touches another person, they are ‘it’. But , if we take an entirely impersonal view of objective truth, the contact between both people occurs simultaneously and theoretically the role of ‘it’ could – to this objective viewer – belong to either player. This is against our common- sense knowledge of the ‘rules of the game’ 4 and the contextual understanding of things such as who is the instigator of the touch. This parallels how Wittgenstein explains the function of language, existing within certain social pretexts which define the parameters of our interpretation of communication. Truth, I believe, functions in a similar way. When we witness the game of ‘it’ , we know the fact that a new person has been ‘tagged’ because it fits a social context which has been invented for the purpose of an enjoyable game.
Human inventions notably arise in response to a certain challenge. Truth is invented in response to beliefs which are challenged and found no longer useful. This is to say that truth is invented as a synthesis of an old belief and its challenges to form a new practical truth in a dialectical relationship.
For instance, the belief ‘ the world is flat ’ was true until someone failed to fall off what was supposed to be the edge. At this point the belief (which until this point was true) was subjected to doubt due to its impracticality, despite having been previously functional and is no longer considered ‘ known ’ . This is the basis of the scientific method, if we discover an object which doesn’t obey the laws of gravity, we must then subject our beliefs to doubt and claim we no longer know that gravity exists. Much like Thomas Kuhn’s idea of the paradigm shift, 5 when we say what is true is practical, truth progresses with the foremost ideas of a given time.
3 James 1975: 27. 4 Wittgenstein 2009: 65. 5 Kuhn 1970: 102.
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