Synopses & Reviews
In a number of influential articles published since 1972, Dorothy Grover has developed the prosentential theory of truth. Brought together and published with a new introduction, these essays are even more impressive as a group than they were as single contributions to philosophy and linguistics. Denying that truth has an explanatory role, the prosentential theory does not address traditional truth issues like belief, meaning, and justification. Instead, it focuses on the grammatical role of the truth predicate and asserts that "it is true" is a prosentence, functioning much as a pronoun does. Grover defends the theory by indicating how it can handle notorious paradoxes like the Liar, as well as by analyzing some English truth-usages. The introduction to the volume surveys traditional theories of truth, including correspondence, pragmatic, and coherence theories. It discusses the essays to come and, finally, considers the implications of the prosentential theory for other theories. Despite the fact that the prosentential theory dismisses the "nature of truth" as a red herring, Grover shows that there are important aspects of traditional truth theories that prosentential theorists have the option of endorsing.
Originally published in 1992.
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Table of Contents
| Preface | |
1 | Introductory Essay | 3 |
| 1. On "the Nature of Truth" | 4 |
2 | The Prosentential Theory - Review and Reflections | 15 |
3 | Implications for Some Other Theories of Truth | 27 |
4 | Final Reflections | 44 |
2 | Propositional Quantifiers | 46 |
| A Preview | 46 |
1 | Introduction | 47 |
2 | A Language in Which Sentences Are the Substituends of Propositional Variables | 48 |
3 | A Language in Which Propositional Terms Are the Substituends of Propositional Term Variables | 63 |
4 | Summary | 68 |
3 | A Prosentential Theory of Truth | 70 |
1 | Ramsey | 71 |
2 | Prosentential Theory: Exposition | 80 |
3 | Prosentential Theory: Objections | 97 |
4 | Consequences and Applications | 105 |
4 | Inheritors and Paradox | 121 |
1 | Grounded Pronouns | 124 |
2 | Inheritors | 125 |
3 | Ungrounded Inheritors | 126 |
4 | Grounded Prosentences | 127 |
5 | Sentential Inheritors | 127 |
6 | Ungrounded Inheritors | 128 |
7 | Paradoxes | 129 |
8 | Generalized Versions of the Liar | 129 |
9 | Grounded/Ungrounded | 131 |
10 | A Cause of "Paradox" | 132 |
11 | A Strengthened Version of the Liar | 133 |
12 | Semantic and Logical Paradoxes | 136 |
5 | Prosentences and Propositional Quantification: A Response to Zimmerman | 137 |
1 | Prosentences | 138 |
2 | Propositional Quantification | 140 |
3 | Irredundant Uses of 'True' | 143 |
6 | Truth | 146 |
1 | Two Sources of Scepticism | 152 |
2 | Extensions for 'True' and 'False' | 155 |
3 | Would a Property-Ascribing 'True' Be Useful? | 156 |
4 | Review | 164 |
5 | Propositional Quantification in English | 167 |
7 | Truth: Do We Need It? | 173 |
1 | Problems of Expressibility | 174 |
2 | Is Truth a Property? | 175 |
3 | The Prosentential Theory | 178 |
4 | A Bit of Characterizing | 181 |
5 | Meaning and Truth | 185 |
6 | Logic and Truth | 189 |
7 | On 'Neither True nor False' | 193 |
8 | Properties Reconsidered | 204 |
8 | Berry's Paradox | 207 |
1 | Inheritors | 208 |
2 | Berry's Paradox | 211 |
3 | Variations on Berry | 213 |
9 | On Two Deflationary Truth Theories | 215 |
| A Preview | 216 |
1 | The Disquotational Theory | 216 |
2 | The Prosentential Theory | 218 |
3 | Generalization - A Comparison | 222 |
4 | Metalinguistic Uses of the Truth Predicate | 225 |
5 | Disquotation with Prosentences | 230 |
6 | Summary | 233 |
10 | Propositional Quantification and Quotation Contexts | 234 |
1 | Introduction | 234 |
2 | Grammar | 235 |
3 | Hierarchies | 236 |
4 | Semantics | 238 |
5 | Discussion | 242 |
11 | Quantifying in and out of Quotes | 244 |
1 | Logic as an Organon | 244 |
2 | 0[subscript 2] and M[subscript 2] Completely Separate | 249 |
3 | 0[subscript 3] a Proper Part of M[subscript 3] | 260 |
4 | 0[subscript]4 and M[subscript 4] Overlap | 275 |
| Bibliography | 277 |
| Index | 285 |