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Oxford Readings in Philosophy
On Truth
Truth is not just a recent topic of contention. Arguments about it have gone on for centuries. Why is the truth important? Who decides what the truth is? Is there such a thing as objective, eternal truth, or is truth simply a matter of perspective, of linguistic or cultural vantage point?
In this concise book Simon Blackburn provides an accessible explanation of what truth is and how we might think about it. The first half of the book details several main approaches to how we should think about, and decide, what is true. These are philosophical theories of truth such as the correspondence theory, the coherence theory, deflationism, and others. He then examines how those approaches relate to truth in several contentious domains: art, ethics, reasoning, religion, and the interpretation of texts.
Blackburn's overall message is that truth is often best thought of not as a product or an end point that is 'finally' achieved, but--as the American pragmatist thinkers thought of it--as an ongoing process of inquiry. The result is an accessible and tour through some of the deepest and thorniest questions philosophy has ever tackled
In this concise book Simon Blackburn provides an accessible explanation of what truth is and how we might think about it. The first half of the book details several main approaches to how we should think about, and decide, what is true. These are philosophical theories of truth such as the correspondence theory, the coherence theory, deflationism, and others. He then examines how those approaches relate to truth in several contentious domains: art, ethics, reasoning, religion, and the interpretation of texts.
Blackburn's overall message is that truth is often best thought of not as a product or an end point that is 'finally' achieved, but--as the American pragmatist thinkers thought of it--as an ongoing process of inquiry. The result is an accessible and tour through some of the deepest and thorniest questions philosophy has ever tackled
160 pages, Paperback
Published July 2, 2018
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677 people want to read
About the author
Simon Blackburn
75 books278 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Simon Blackburn FBA is an English academic philosopher known for his work in metaethics, where he defends quasi-realism, and in the philosophy of language; more recently, he has gained a large general audience from his efforts to popularise philosophy.
He retired as the professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge in 2011, but remains a distinguished research professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, teaching every fall semester. He is also a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and a member of the professoriate of New College of the Humanities. He was previously a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford and has also taught full-time at the University of North Carolina as an Edna J. Koury Professor. He is a former president of the Aristotelian Society, having served the 2009–2010 term. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002 and a Foreign Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2008.
Simon Blackburn FBA is an English academic philosopher known for his work in metaethics, where he defends quasi-realism, and in the philosophy of language; more recently, he has gained a large general audience from his efforts to popularise philosophy.
He retired as the professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge in 2011, but remains a distinguished research professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, teaching every fall semester. He is also a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and a member of the professoriate of New College of the Humanities. He was previously a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford and has also taught full-time at the University of North Carolina as an Edna J. Koury Professor. He is a former president of the Aristotelian Society, having served the 2009–2010 term. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002 and a Foreign Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 14, 2025
That Weakest Of Human Passions ....
In his short, provocative book "On Truth" philosopher Simon Blackburn explores the nature of truth and how we search for it. Blackburn is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and served as Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. There are two large concerns prompting this book. The first concern is the popularity of deconstructionist, post-modern philosophy which denies the possibility of truth and which sees all claimed truths as relative to the speaker or group. The second concern is political, with the rise of a "post truth", "alternative facts" political culture and apparent disregard for the truth in both the United States and the United Kingdom. These considerations, as well as the broad importance and interest of the topic, make it valuable to revisit the nature of truth.
This book is elegantly and cogently written and meant to be accessible to lay readers as well as to academic philosophers. With Blackburn's mastery of the subject, the book lucidly addresses difficult questions in short chapters. Still, the book addresses issues and philosophers that general readers are likely to find daunting, with consideration, for example, of the "deflationary" concept of truth and of the semantic theory of truth of Alfred Tarski. Issues are raised and resolved with much brevity. Blackburn states that his book aims to provide suggestions for approaches and materials for reflection to his readers. With that goal, he succeeds admirably.
Blackburn has been greatly influenced by American pragmatism, in particular the pragmatism of Charles Peirce. His book begins with a short, difficult saying from Peirce: "We must not begin by talking of pure ideas -- vagabond thoughts that trump the public highways without any human habitation -- but must begin with men and their conversation." Blackburn combines Peirce with an epigram from a much different thinker -- the utilitarian Jeremy Bentham who wrote: "Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet." Blackburn's study is a meditation and expansion of these thoughts of Peirce and Bentham.
The book is in two parts. In the first part, Blackburn examines traditional philosophical theories of truth. He devotes short chapters to the correspondence theory followed by chapters dealing with the coherence theory of truth, pragmatism, and deflationism and Tarski. The correspondence theory is roughly treated and rejected as uninformative and unhelpful. Blackburn finds a great deal of value in the remaining theories and tends, properly enough, to see them as a piece. He is particularly inclined towards Pierce's pragmatism with its emphasis on success in action for a given inquiry and the goal of convergence of opinion by informed observers. He contrasts Peirce with the more subjective understanding of pragmatism by Peirce's friend, William James, in his philosophy of religion and strongly favors Peirce over James. Yet in a summary of the contents of the first part of the book, Blackburn stresses the unity between Peirce and James at his clearest. To find the truth is not to search for a thing or a metaphysical abstraction but instead is a process that responds to a particular human question and involves a search for the "particular go" of it. Truth is not a fact or a thing but rather a method of [e]nquiry used to develop how we strive to understand and assess the facts and the ideal endpoint of investigation. The shift from fact to method in understanding truth constitutes what Blackburn terms the "sea change" in philosophy wrought by American pragmatism.
In the second part of his book, Blackburn applies his view that truth is a method of enquiry which makes a "particular go" of it in human situations to a variety of contentious, emotive areas of human experience. He considers what the search for truth involves in art and in criticism and whether any more may be said than that only matters of taste are involved. He considers truth in ethics and morals, passing from broad, wooly relativistic theories to understanding our responses to some particular, not difficult, examples. For example, the perception that it would be wrong to put a baby on the ground and stomp on it would work as a counter-example to an unqualified relativism. It would be worth exploring why and how ethics and truth begin in particulars and in methods. The mid-point of part two is a short chapter on reason. Blackburn rejects foundational accounts and the philosophical quest for certainty but argues that we begin where we are with what we know and work forward to deal with particulars and with questions that need to be resolved to lead a better human life and then adjust our background knowledge and assumptions as may be appropriate. He writes:
"The enquiry is essentially practical: we can say that its goal is truth, but it can as well be described as knowing when and how to act, whom to admire, how to educate people, what to believe, or, all in all, how to live."
The final two chapters of Blackburn's book explore truth as a method for enquiry in probably the broadest and most contentious areas of life: the search for truth in religion and the nature of truth in broad interpretive endeavors, including the law, the study and understanding of history, and politics.
I learned a great deal from this book, which brought me back to the pragmatism and idealism I have been studying in Peirce and in the American philosopher Josiah Royce, who isn't discussed in the book. The book reminded me of why I love philosophy and think it valuable. The book is quick on some parts but should inspire readers to think for themselves. The book includes a short bibliography for readers wishing to explore further.
Robin Friedman
In his short, provocative book "On Truth" philosopher Simon Blackburn explores the nature of truth and how we search for it. Blackburn is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and served as Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. There are two large concerns prompting this book. The first concern is the popularity of deconstructionist, post-modern philosophy which denies the possibility of truth and which sees all claimed truths as relative to the speaker or group. The second concern is political, with the rise of a "post truth", "alternative facts" political culture and apparent disregard for the truth in both the United States and the United Kingdom. These considerations, as well as the broad importance and interest of the topic, make it valuable to revisit the nature of truth.
This book is elegantly and cogently written and meant to be accessible to lay readers as well as to academic philosophers. With Blackburn's mastery of the subject, the book lucidly addresses difficult questions in short chapters. Still, the book addresses issues and philosophers that general readers are likely to find daunting, with consideration, for example, of the "deflationary" concept of truth and of the semantic theory of truth of Alfred Tarski. Issues are raised and resolved with much brevity. Blackburn states that his book aims to provide suggestions for approaches and materials for reflection to his readers. With that goal, he succeeds admirably.
Blackburn has been greatly influenced by American pragmatism, in particular the pragmatism of Charles Peirce. His book begins with a short, difficult saying from Peirce: "We must not begin by talking of pure ideas -- vagabond thoughts that trump the public highways without any human habitation -- but must begin with men and their conversation." Blackburn combines Peirce with an epigram from a much different thinker -- the utilitarian Jeremy Bentham who wrote: "Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet." Blackburn's study is a meditation and expansion of these thoughts of Peirce and Bentham.
The book is in two parts. In the first part, Blackburn examines traditional philosophical theories of truth. He devotes short chapters to the correspondence theory followed by chapters dealing with the coherence theory of truth, pragmatism, and deflationism and Tarski. The correspondence theory is roughly treated and rejected as uninformative and unhelpful. Blackburn finds a great deal of value in the remaining theories and tends, properly enough, to see them as a piece. He is particularly inclined towards Pierce's pragmatism with its emphasis on success in action for a given inquiry and the goal of convergence of opinion by informed observers. He contrasts Peirce with the more subjective understanding of pragmatism by Peirce's friend, William James, in his philosophy of religion and strongly favors Peirce over James. Yet in a summary of the contents of the first part of the book, Blackburn stresses the unity between Peirce and James at his clearest. To find the truth is not to search for a thing or a metaphysical abstraction but instead is a process that responds to a particular human question and involves a search for the "particular go" of it. Truth is not a fact or a thing but rather a method of [e]nquiry used to develop how we strive to understand and assess the facts and the ideal endpoint of investigation. The shift from fact to method in understanding truth constitutes what Blackburn terms the "sea change" in philosophy wrought by American pragmatism.
In the second part of his book, Blackburn applies his view that truth is a method of enquiry which makes a "particular go" of it in human situations to a variety of contentious, emotive areas of human experience. He considers what the search for truth involves in art and in criticism and whether any more may be said than that only matters of taste are involved. He considers truth in ethics and morals, passing from broad, wooly relativistic theories to understanding our responses to some particular, not difficult, examples. For example, the perception that it would be wrong to put a baby on the ground and stomp on it would work as a counter-example to an unqualified relativism. It would be worth exploring why and how ethics and truth begin in particulars and in methods. The mid-point of part two is a short chapter on reason. Blackburn rejects foundational accounts and the philosophical quest for certainty but argues that we begin where we are with what we know and work forward to deal with particulars and with questions that need to be resolved to lead a better human life and then adjust our background knowledge and assumptions as may be appropriate. He writes:
"The enquiry is essentially practical: we can say that its goal is truth, but it can as well be described as knowing when and how to act, whom to admire, how to educate people, what to believe, or, all in all, how to live."
The final two chapters of Blackburn's book explore truth as a method for enquiry in probably the broadest and most contentious areas of life: the search for truth in religion and the nature of truth in broad interpretive endeavors, including the law, the study and understanding of history, and politics.
I learned a great deal from this book, which brought me back to the pragmatism and idealism I have been studying in Peirce and in the American philosopher Josiah Royce, who isn't discussed in the book. The book reminded me of why I love philosophy and think it valuable. The book is quick on some parts but should inspire readers to think for themselves. The book includes a short bibliography for readers wishing to explore further.
Robin Friedman
April 21, 2019
Book club read. I can't say I got much out of this. Maybe I could have (re)read it more closely, but I often found it hard to discern what point he was making, and where I did, I often either disagreed or thought the point was obvious. More generally, I was left with a "so what" feeling. But I get that feeling about most purely-philosophical arguments like this so I'm not particularly surprised or even disappointed about that.
I am pretty sympathetic with the pragmatists' view (as presented by Blackburn) that truth is not an absolute non-material thing: it ultimately traces back to "men and their conversations" (or what Sam Harris would phrase more modernly as "consciousness and its contents"). In other words, something is true if and only if it is believed to be true (leaving aside the details of exactly whom it is believed by, e.g. "everyone", "experts", "reasonable people", or "hypothetical reasonable people"). But, Blackburn attempts to show (I think?) that this means you can say that matters of aesthetics and ethics are literally true or false, rather than relativistically saying that these are always subjective matters of taste and opinion and culture. I didn't find this convincing; to me, truth is based on a framework of logical principles and accepted standards of proof, but you usually can't change someone's likes and dislikes with a logical proof.
I am pretty sympathetic with the pragmatists' view (as presented by Blackburn) that truth is not an absolute non-material thing: it ultimately traces back to "men and their conversations" (or what Sam Harris would phrase more modernly as "consciousness and its contents"). In other words, something is true if and only if it is believed to be true (leaving aside the details of exactly whom it is believed by, e.g. "everyone", "experts", "reasonable people", or "hypothetical reasonable people"). But, Blackburn attempts to show (I think?) that this means you can say that matters of aesthetics and ethics are literally true or false, rather than relativistically saying that these are always subjective matters of taste and opinion and culture. I didn't find this convincing; to me, truth is based on a framework of logical principles and accepted standards of proof, but you usually can't change someone's likes and dislikes with a logical proof.
August 13, 2020
Good Exploration of the Philosophical Notion of Truth
Blackburn effectively lays out the Basic Arguments for Truth: Correspondence, Coherence, Pragmatism and Deflationism but then, interestingly he discusses how these arguments apply or don’t apply to important areas like Art, Ethics, Reason and Religion, areas where he instructs us that in the words of C.S. Peirce we stand on a slippery bog, but it’s all we’ve got. Darn!
Blackburn effectively lays out the Basic Arguments for Truth: Correspondence, Coherence, Pragmatism and Deflationism but then, interestingly he discusses how these arguments apply or don’t apply to important areas like Art, Ethics, Reason and Religion, areas where he instructs us that in the words of C.S. Peirce we stand on a slippery bog, but it’s all we’ve got. Darn!
January 10, 2020
This is an excellent introduction to philosophical ideas surrounding the concept of truth. For anyone not yet familiar with these ideas it should be essential reading, particularly for those who seek to find truth (or even who see only matters of taste which cannot be defined in terms of truth) in the likes of aesthetics and ethics.
I'm not sure that Blackburn is entirely successful in what he wants to achieve here - laymen will find the book difficult to follow, while people already familiar with philosophy might find parts of it too obvious. But the broad overview it provides will hopefully mean that there's something of value here for everyone (for myself that was the chapter on aesthetics).
I'm not sure that Blackburn is entirely successful in what he wants to achieve here - laymen will find the book difficult to follow, while people already familiar with philosophy might find parts of it too obvious. But the broad overview it provides will hopefully mean that there's something of value here for everyone (for myself that was the chapter on aesthetics).
July 19, 2021
Well-structured and elegantly written, while still demanding careful thought from the reader. (I will need to keep thinking.) The first part of the book gives concise introductions to various theories of truth; the second part addresses the question of truth in respect of various dimensions of culture where the notion of truth can seem inapplicable: art, morality, reasoning itself, religion. The chapter on truth and religion was a bit frustrating -- its conception of religion seemed overly simple in ways that topics of other chapters were not.
November 11, 2023
Definitely made my eyes glaze over in the second half (revelations were much sparser for me), but it ended on a good note and I'm grateful for it.
That being said I don't think I agree with the deflationism that was championed in the book.
Using logic to define truth seems like using a baseball bat to define the chemical composition of wood. Technically yes, but I want to know the elements of wood, not that a baseball bat is wood, and hence IS the chemical composition.
That being said I don't think I agree with the deflationism that was championed in the book.
Using logic to define truth seems like using a baseball bat to define the chemical composition of wood. Technically yes, but I want to know the elements of wood, not that a baseball bat is wood, and hence IS the chemical composition.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2021
Pretty good intro of epistemology, but I think I might need to read it over again once or twice to really internalize some of the theories. I think it might be a bit too much of an overview for me to be able to strongly internalize any of the ideas. Author has a slight liberal bent but is generally pretty reasonable.
April 3, 2020
Really just introductory not a lot of exciting stuff, but good introduction to this area of epistemology.
June 11, 2024
An interesting read but now I know less about truth than before!
February 27, 2024
As an academic economist, I spend my much of my professional life doing research. The goal is mostly to show a hypotheses to be true or false. It struck me a few years ago that while the ultimate scientific goal is to uncover the truth, I couldn't say what the truth is. To remedy that situation, I recently picked up Simon Blackburn's book On Truth.
This short book is aimed at exactly someone like me, a complete newbie to the philosophical discussion surrounding truth. It is an introduction to the topic. As an introduction, it is somewhat successful. Blackburn marches out and describes the standard basic theories: the correspondence, coherence, pragmatic, and deflationary theories of truth.
This is all to the good, except that I would have liked a bit more argument against the correspondence theory, the idea that a sentence is true when it corresponds with the facts out there in the world. This is the common-sense view, and I was surprised when I learned that many or even most philosophers believe that the correspondence theory is wrong. Blackburn doesn't do much more than describe it.
As far as I can tell, the main problem for supporters of the correspondence theory is that they can never really tell if a proposition is true. Mencius could not be sure whether he dreamt of being a butterfly, or whether he was a butterfly dreaming of being Mencius. We can only observe the world through our senses, and those were not developed to discover truth. Our senses evolved to help us survive. Optical illusions should clue us in that things are not always as they seem, and there is no way to step outside ourselves to observe the reality hiding behind our perception. If truth is something ineffable, it calls a lot of my professional life into question!
The chapter on deflationary theory, Blackburn's baby, was quite good. His point is that saying something is true is really just saying it. "It is true that Blackburn is a philosopher," is the same as saying, "Blackburn is a philosopher." Richard Rorty, who was sometime Blackburn's foil, once proposed that the word "truth" be banned from philosophy for ten years. Blackburn believes philosophy would not lose anything from banning the word.
The second half of the book describes truth in different areas: tastes, ethics, religion. It is controversial whether there are truths in, for example, tastes. Is there really such a thing as good wine, or just arbitrary wine snobbery? To me, truth in science is the most interesting area to discuss -- are physical models true? Here again, Blackburn writes a few paragraphs, but I would have preferred much more.
In sum, because I knew so little, I learned a lot from the book. Blackburn is generally a good writer, and he has more than a few witty remarks. If I had to start from the beginning again, however, I would have looked somewhere else.
This short book is aimed at exactly someone like me, a complete newbie to the philosophical discussion surrounding truth. It is an introduction to the topic. As an introduction, it is somewhat successful. Blackburn marches out and describes the standard basic theories: the correspondence, coherence, pragmatic, and deflationary theories of truth.
This is all to the good, except that I would have liked a bit more argument against the correspondence theory, the idea that a sentence is true when it corresponds with the facts out there in the world. This is the common-sense view, and I was surprised when I learned that many or even most philosophers believe that the correspondence theory is wrong. Blackburn doesn't do much more than describe it.
As far as I can tell, the main problem for supporters of the correspondence theory is that they can never really tell if a proposition is true. Mencius could not be sure whether he dreamt of being a butterfly, or whether he was a butterfly dreaming of being Mencius. We can only observe the world through our senses, and those were not developed to discover truth. Our senses evolved to help us survive. Optical illusions should clue us in that things are not always as they seem, and there is no way to step outside ourselves to observe the reality hiding behind our perception. If truth is something ineffable, it calls a lot of my professional life into question!
The chapter on deflationary theory, Blackburn's baby, was quite good. His point is that saying something is true is really just saying it. "It is true that Blackburn is a philosopher," is the same as saying, "Blackburn is a philosopher." Richard Rorty, who was sometime Blackburn's foil, once proposed that the word "truth" be banned from philosophy for ten years. Blackburn believes philosophy would not lose anything from banning the word.
The second half of the book describes truth in different areas: tastes, ethics, religion. It is controversial whether there are truths in, for example, tastes. Is there really such a thing as good wine, or just arbitrary wine snobbery? To me, truth in science is the most interesting area to discuss -- are physical models true? Here again, Blackburn writes a few paragraphs, but I would have preferred much more.
In sum, because I knew so little, I learned a lot from the book. Blackburn is generally a good writer, and he has more than a few witty remarks. If I had to start from the beginning again, however, I would have looked somewhere else.
June 13, 2024
Excellent for what it is: a broad overview of the main theories of truth, and how truth - or rightness - is best conceived in the various domains that make no factual claims, including aesthetics, religion, ethics, and practical reasoning. Blackburn also provides very good recommendations for those who want to pursue these topics in greater depth.
February 25, 2020
It's a fine review of theories of truth, though not revelatory. The intent, was of course, to give a readable overview of theories of truth and it does a good job.
September 24, 2018
BOTWListen here
Description: Truth is not just a recent topic of contention. Arguments about it have gone on for centuries. Why is the truth important? Who decides what the truth is? Is there such a thing as objective, eternal truth, or is truth simply a matter of perspective, of linguistic or cultural vantage point?
In this concise book Simon Blackburn provides an accessible explanation of what truth is and how we might think about it. The first half of the book details several main approaches to how we should think about, and decide, what is true. These are philosophical theories of truth such as the correspondence theory, the coherence theory, deflationism, and others. He then examines how those approaches relate to truth in several contentious domains: art, ethics, reasoning, religion, and the interpretation of texts.
Blackburn's overall message is that truth is often best thought of not as a product or an end point that is 'finally' achieved, but--as the American pragmatist thinkers thought of it--as an ongoing process of inquiry. The result is an accessible and tour through some of the deepest and thorniest questions philosophy has ever tackled
If you think knowledge is expensive,
try ignorance."
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews