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Pluralism and the Absence of Truth Jeremy W University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 5-7-2014 Pluralism and the Absence of Truth Jeremy W. Wyatt University of Connecticut - Storrs, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Wyatt, Jeremy W., "Pluralism and the Absence of Truth" (2014). Doctoral Dissertations. 345. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/345 Pluralism and the Absence of Truth Jeremy Wyatt, Ph.D. University of Connecticut, 2014 In this dissertation, I argue that we should be pluralists about truth and in turn, eliminativists about the property truth. Traditional deflationists were right to suspect that there is no such property as truth. Yet there is a plurality of pluralities of properties which enjoy defining features that truth would have, were it to exist. So although, in this sense, truth is plural, truth is non-existent. The resulting account of truth is indebted to deflationism as the provenance of the suspicion that truth doesn't exist. But it would be hasty to simply classify the account as deflationary. Each of the `truth-like' properties that it recognizes is highly substantive{that is, complex and explanatorily potent. So we should deflate truth by recognizing that it doesn't exist, but we should also recognize that one of the most vital tasks in truth theory is to discover the essences of the many truth-like properties. My aim here is to do precisely this. Pluralism and the Absence of Truth Jeremy Wyatt, Ph.D. B.A., Texas Christian University, 2008 M.A., University of Connecticut, 2011 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fullfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut 2014 APPROVAL PAGE Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Pluralism and the Absence of Truth Presented by Jeremy Wyatt, B.A., M.A. Major Advisor Michael Lynch Associate Advisor Jc Beall Associate Advisor Marcus Rossberg University of Connecticut 2014 ii To my family. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My greatest philosophical debt is due to Michael Lynch for his patience, encour- agement, and honesty and most of all for his concern. He will serve for the rest of my career as a paradigm of the kind of person a philosopher ought to be; I'm fortunate to know him. Others at UConn, past and present, who deserve special thanks include my committee members Jc Beall and Marcus Rossberg as well as Don Baxter, Nilanjan Bhowmick, Tom Bontly, David Capps, Colin Caret, Aaron Cotnoir, Jon Gajewski, Michael Hughes, Casey Johnson, Scott Lehmann, Daniel Massey, Toby Napoletano, Dave Ripley, Yael Sharvit, Paul Silva, Lionel Shapiro, John Troyer, and Sam Wheeler. I began work on `Minimizing moderate pluralism' while serving as a Visiting Re- search Fellow at the Northern Institute of Philosophy in the summer of 2013. The feedback that I received during a presentation in NIP's Pluralism seminar was integral to the development of that chapter. Thanks to everyone at NIP for an invaluable experience and especially to Carl Baker, Delia Belleri, Doug Edwards, Filippo Ferrari, Fed Luzzi, Giacomo Melis, Tim Sundell, Cory Wright, and Crispin Wright. I continued to develop this chapter while visiting Yonsei Universtiy for the remainder of that summer. Thanks to Nikolaj Pedersen and to the members of his Graduate Research Workshop, especially Junyeol Kim and Chulmin Yoon, iv for excellent feedback and to Nikolaj for ongoing and open conversation. Funding for my visit to Yonsei was provided by Yonsei University. Additional funding for both of these visits was provided by the UConn Philosophy Department and the UConn Graduate School. `Domains, plural truth, and mixed atomic propositions' is a revised verison of an article of the same name, published in Philosophical Studies 166: 1. 255-36. An early version of this paper was presented to the Logic, Epistemology, and Meta- physics (LEM) Research Group at UConn. A later version was presented at the 1st Seoul Philosophy Graduate Conference at Yonsei University, funding for which was provided by the UConn Graduate School and Yonsei University. Thanks es- pecially to Jinho Kang, Rune Nyrup, and Takashi Yagisawa for feedback. I presented part of `Minimal pluralism' at the XVII Shapiro Graduate Philoso- phy Conference, held in 2012 at Brown University and at the 2013 meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association. Thanks to all in attendance and especially to Michael Conboy, Phil Corkum, Doug Edwards, and Blake Hestir for commentary. I'm highly indebted to the philosophy faculty at Texas Christian University, in- cluding Gregg Franzwa, Richard Galvin, Blake Hestir, and Bill Roche. Through- out my undergraduate career, they taught me that philosophy is challenging but immensely rewarding. Most importantly, they taught me to remain hungry for understanding. v Over the past six years, my family has contintually offered moral{and, when needed, financial–support. I wouldn't have made it without them. Finally, thanks to JoHannah and Leo for good company through the many hours of writing and revision. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 1 1.1 The essence question . .1 1.2 Deflationism . .3 1.3 Pluralism . .5 1.4 Going forward . .9 2. Why alethic pluralism? ::::::::::::::::::::::::: 13 2.1 Scope + Substance . 14 2.1.1 Scope . 14 2.1.2 Substance . 46 2.1.3 Scope + Substance . 48 2.2 Alethic primitivisms . 52 2.2.1 Anti-reductionism . 52 2.2.2 Indefinabilism . 57 2.2.3 Anti-decompositionalism . 61 2.2.4 Circularism . 64 2.3 Pluralism + Primitivism . 67 2.3.1 The metaphysical instability challenge . 67 2.3.2 Resisting the challenge: anti-reductionism and anti-decompositionalism 75 2.3.3 Circularism . 79 vii 2.4 Indefinabilism and the scope of the scope problem . 81 2.5 Explanatoriness and metaontology . 84 2.5.1 Indefinabilism . 90 2.5.2 Deflationism . 92 2.5.3 The metaphysical instability challenge . 96 3. Domains, plural truth, and mixed atomic propositions ::::: 99 3.1 Pluralism and truth-aptness . 101 3.2 Domains . 106 3.3 The problem of mixed atomic propositions . 112 3.3.1 Response: No domains . 114 3.3.2 Solution: Multiple domain membership, but one manifester . 118 4. Minimizing moderate pluralism ::::::::::::::::::: 124 4.1 Moderate pluralism: core theses . 127 4.2 The alethic platitudes and platitude conformity . 132 4.2.1 The need for platitudes . 132 4.2.2 The need for neutrality . 138 4.2.3 Alethic properties and platitude conformity . 143 4.2.4 Overgeneration? . 152 4.2.5 Overly technical? . 155 4.3 The instability of moderate pluralism . 158 viii 4.4 Sentence-truth, proposition-truth, and `real truth' . 163 4.5 Miscellaneity: Proposition-truth, sentence-truth, and truth ...... 169 4.6 Propositions and indicative sentence-tokens . 176 4.7 Bearer-specific alethic properties . 179 4.8 Truth as strongly general . 183 4.9 Unity: minimal pluralism vs. strengthened moderate pluralism . 185 4.9.1 Ontological parsimony . 185 4.9.2 Unity, mixed discourse, and mongrel discourse . 188 4.10 Mixed, general truth ascriptions and the meaning of `true' . 205 4.11 Core theses of moderate and strengthened moderate pluralism . 210 4.11.1 Moderate pluralism . 210 4.11.2 Strengthened moderate pluralism . 212 5. Minimal pluralism :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 213 5.1 Minimal pluralism: overview . 213 5.2 Deflationism . 217 5.2.1 Pluralism and deflationism . 217 5.2.2 The need to disambiguate . 221 5.2.3 Varieties of substantiality . 223 5.2.4 Edwards on substantiality . 257 5.2.5 Minimal pluralism and deflationism . 264 5.3 Proposition-truth and sentence-truth . 283 ix 5.3.1 Necessity and contingency . 283 5.3.2 Propositions, sentence-tokens, assertions . 286 5.3.3 Priority: Properties and concepts . 294 5.4 The domain-specific alethic properties . 304 5.4.1 Unity and parsimony . 305 5.4.2 Correspondence pluralism . 308 5.5 Determination . 332 5.6 Moving beyond truth ........................... 335 5.6.1 Minimal pluralism: core theses . 335 Bibliography 338 x Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 The essence question The traditional question in truth theory is the essence question: what is the essence of truth? This question has been taken to apply primarily at the level of properties. Most truth theorists, drawing upon our ordinary linguistic and cognitive practices, have supposed that in seeking after the essence of truth, we are seeking after the essence of a property truth which some entities have and some lack. The impression that this should be the object of truth theory is encouraged by the facts, for instance, (i) that in performing ascriptions and denials of truth, we very often use what looks to be a distinctive predicate, namely `is true' and (ii) that this predicate looks to have a conceptual analogue, the concept truth, which we deploy when believing such things as that it is true that the Earth is spherical. Expressions that are predicates in a semantic sense have, according to a venerable tradition, properties as their semantic values. `Is round,' for instance, has as its semantic value the property roundness. So if indeed we use a semantic 1 2 predicate `is true,' then it is an important task for truth theorists to explain just what is the nature of the property truth that is the predicate's semantic value. This line of thought harbors an assumption that may, at first pass, seem rather unremarkable. This is that if `is true' has a property as its semantic value, then there is exactly one property that is the semantic value of `is true.' This assumption is characteristic of monism about truth. Monists about truth{or as they are sometimes called, alethic monists, the root of `alethic' being the Greek word `aletheia,' meaning truth{hold that there is one and only one property truth, whose essence truth theorists are tasked with discovering.
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