Theories of Truth: A Critical Introduction

by Richard L. Kirkham

Theories of Truth provides a clear, critical introduction to one of the most difficult areas of philosophy. It surveys all of the major philosophical theories of truth, presenting the crux of the issues involved at a level accessible to nonexperts yet in a manner sufficiently detailed and original to be of value to professional scholars. Kirkham's systematic treatment and meticulous explanations of terminology ensure that readers will come away from this book with a comprehensive general understanding of one of philosophy's thorniest set of topics. Included are discussions of the correspondence, coherence, pragmatic, semantic, performative, redundancy, appraisal, and truth-as-justification theories. There are also chapters or sections of chapters on the liar paradox, three-valued logic, Field's critique of Tarski, Davidson's program, Dummett's theory of linguistic competence, satisfaction, recursion, the extension/intension distinction, and an explanation of how theories of justification, properly understood, differ from theories of truth. A persistent theme is that philosophers have too often failed to recognize that not all theories of truth are intended to answer the same question. When the various questions are made distinct, it is apparent that many of the "debates" in this field are really cases of philosophers talking past one another. There is much less disagreement within the field than has commonly been thought.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

415 pages, Paperback

First published August 3, 1992

Reviews

[Victor Mallo]

Sangat komprehensif

[Esther]

Extremely helpful outline. I'm grateful someone compiled this content into one book. The distinction between the different projects was particularly helpful. Kirkham makes no effort to hide what theory he ascribes to, and which theories he is at least more open to, but I cannot really fault him for that since all philosophy books I have picked up, even textbooks, are that way. I came to this book with many questions, and I'm leaving it with a whole set of new ones. But I take that as a good thing. Onto Loux's metaphysics.

[Happy Reader]

This is the book I should have written! :)

[Anything]

I am not lying when I say this is perhaps the best philosophy book I have read. Aside from it being a really helpful outline, Kirkham is more honest than any other philosopher I have seen. He sharply points out all of the strange methodology I have seen throughout all these other philosophical works. He clearly points out the true demon of skepticism and how to cope with its haunting. He really understands what's going on within the domain and is very clever in its traversal.

I think everyone should read this book, or at least extracts, perhaps certain chapters from it, and it will function as a great introduction to philosophy as a whole. Truly amazing.

[Daniel Martínez]

Buena intro a las teorías de la verdad, pero el 80% del contenido no vale. La sección de los portadores de verdad es ridícula. Ah, y debería dedicar más páginas a la teoría prooracional. Otra cosa: Ramsey no tiene una teoría de la redundancia.

[Hussam Nabil]

This is one of the very few books that offers a comprehensive account of Truth Theories in Epistemology and the author has done an amazing job at that.
I would absolutely give it more than 5 stars if I could.