The coherence definition of truth claims that a statement is true if and only if it stands in an appropriate relation to some system of other statements. & Trout, J.D., 1998)Īnd, Coherence theory – It says that the truth of a belief consists in its coherence with other beliefs. True statement corresponds, in some sense, with reality, and false statement fail to correspond to how things actually are in the world. For instance, the true statement that you are reading this essay corresponds, in some sense, to the actual features of the world in your immediate environment. According to a longstanding tradition about what it is for statement to be true, there must be some appropriate correspondence between true statements and actual features of the world. The two traditional theories of truth are the:Ĭorrespondence theory – whereby, “x is true” means “x corresponds to a fact” or, alternatively, whereby the truth of statements is explained in terms of the referents of their constituents and references is then defined in terms of some casual correspondence relation. (Borchert, D.M., 2006, Encyclopedia of Philosophy) A proper understanding of truth promises to illuminate fundamental issues in metaphysics, the philosophy of language, logic and ethics.

For example, it is often said that truth is the aim of science that the meaning of a sentence is given by the conditions under which it is true, that logical validity is the preservation of the truth, or that ethical statements are neither true nor false.

What is the property we are attributing when we call a truth-bearer true? The question is crucial because of truth’s involvement in central philosophical claims. We attribute truth and inaccuracy to a wide variety of so called truth-bearers: linguistic items (sentences, utterances, statements and assertions), abstract items (propositions), and mental items (judgments and beliefs). Theories of truth investigate truth as a property of one’s thoughts and speech. Of the many things we could believe about truth, there is at least one that we should believe that, truth matters. There is an aura of peculiar depth and obscurity surrounding our concept of truth, and philosophy abounds with theories designed to illuminate it, to say what it is for beliefs and statements to possess that special quality. Yet the more we stop to think about it, the more complicated it becomes. When we use the idea in ordinary life –as we do when we agree or disagree with what someone has said – it seems a simple matter. One of the reasons truth seems so difficult to describe is that we have conflicting beliefs about it: we sometimes think it is discovered, sometimes created, sometimes knowable, and sometimes mysterious.

When asking about truth, we are specifically interested in finding what conditions a sentence, statement, belief, or proposition must satisfy to be true. Our question is akin to the general question of how language becomes meaningful in such a way that it can refers to things in the world, and to the question of how we can represent in our mind assertions about the world and the world itself. Facing the weighty question-many theorist feel over-whelmed, at a loss for any significant response. Sydney, J(Alochonaa): “What is Truth”? To many, this sounds like an unmanageably deep philosophical question, calling for ponderous but inconclusive reflection.

Coherence theory of truth in philosophy