Truth and the Past

by Michael Dummett, Akeel Bilgrami (Foreword)

Michael Dummett's three John Dewey Lectures -- "The Concept of Truth," "Statements About the Past," and "The Metaphysics of Time" -- were delivered at Columbia University in the spring of 2002. Revised and expanded, the lectures are presented here along with two new essays by Dummett, " Deniers and Defenders" and "The Indispensability of the Concept of Truth." In Truth and the Past, Dummett clarifies his current positions on the metaphysical issue of realism and the philosophy of language. He is best known as a proponent of antirealism, which loosely characterizes truth as what we are capable of knowing. The events of the past and statements about them are critical tests of an antirealist position. These essays continue and significantly contribute to Dummett's work.

Genres: Philosophy, Metaphysics

136 pages, Hardcover

First published December 9, 2003

About the author

A skilled analytic mind and an ardent voice against racism, Sir Michael A. E. Dummett is considered by many to be one of twentieth-century Britain’s most influential philosophers of language. Dummett is best known for his work in the history of analytic philosophy and in his contributions to the philosophy of language and mathematics. Much of his work has taken the form of commentary on the likes of Frege, Wittgenstein, and Quine. Dummett, who considered himself a Wittgensteinian, is widely held as the English authority on the work of German logician Gottlob Frege. Though Dummett diverges from Frege, who is a realist, most of Dummett’s achievements have been pursued in connection with his enthusiasm for Frege’s thought.

Dummett was born in London in 1925 and attended prestigious boys’ schools in Wiltshire and Hampshire. Though he rejected religious belief in his youth, Dummett converted to Catholicism while serving in the armed forces during the Second World War. After his military service he went to Oxford University where he studied philosophy, politics, and economics at Christ Church College. He graduated in 1950 with first class honors and was awarded a fellowship at All Souls College. Throughout his acclaimed career Dummett remained associated with Oxford, though he has held visiting posts at several universities around the world. In 1962 he was appointed reader in the philosophy of mathematics at Oxford; in 1979 he was elected Wykeham Professor of Logic, where he served as chair until his retirement in 1992. Dummett, along with his wife, has remained active in antiracist campaigns and political reforms, even placing his philosophical career on hold for several years during the sixties to pursue these causes. He received a knighthood in 1999.

Many of Britain’s leading analytic philosophers have been significantly influenced by Dummett, including Crispin Wright, Simon Blackburn, John McDowell, and Timothy Williamson — though none would be properly classed a disciple. Dummett’s most notable contributions have come in his analysis of theories of meaning accounting for communication, reason, and representation in language. His commitment to a kind of anti-realism in debates about reference and language, though often overstated, has been a point of particular interest for his admirers and detractors alike. Dummett was not satisfied with the pessimism of Wittgenstein and the holists who denied the possibility of finally understanding a language from within language. Dummett argues that an alternative can be found if one denies the principle of bivalence. Bivalence is the notion that every meaningful proposition is either true or false; and in Dummett’s view the denial of bivalence entails anti-realism about the reference of language.

Dummett’s most influential writings are the first and second editions of Frege: Philosophy of Language (1973–1981), The Interpretation of Frege's Philosophy (1981), and the 'William James Lectures' that he delivered at Harvard in 1976 published in 1991 as The Logical Basis of Metaphysics. He also delivered a series of lectures at Bologna in 1987, published in 1988 as Origins of Analytical Philosophy. In 1991 he published a collections of papers on Frege; and in 1993 a collection entitled The Seas of Language.

Reviews

[Raymond Lam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is Dummett's Dewey lectures on statements about the past in 2003 in Columbia University. They are interesting analyses on assessing truth and realism about the past.

In the first lecture, he starts with the concept of truth by examining Frege and Davidson's conceptions and leading to Wittgenstein's concept of meaning based on a use theory of meaning. Dummett shows Wittgenstein's use theory of meaning is based on the correct use of language which includes a correct content of making  assertion which is tantamount to asserting that which is true. Wittgenstein thus has a truth conditional theory of meaning that Dummett proposes.

The second lecture continues on to the indispensability of truth. He further develops a theory of meaning as inextricably connected to a theory of truth because assertoric content of sentences presume truth values of sentences. History of philosophy has shown meaning and truth is deeply linked.

In lecture three, Dummett uses his concepts of truth and meaning to develop a justificationist account of meaning to assess statements about the past. The idea is that truth value about the past is about a known procedure based on direct or indirect evidence from memories, testimonials, and documents that can be used to justify the assertions of the past. It is not necessary that such verification procedure has been carried out to justify past statement but that such a procedure can be carried out reasonably to verify past statements.

The third lecture is on the semantics of past tense. Dummett provides further semantic analysis of a justificationist theory of meaning by suggesting that such justification requires one to recognise how past states of affairs obtain.  This task involves the ability to construct a spatial-temporal grid in the mind to derive direct or indirect grounds to assess past statements. Sometimes only indirect means are available which means justification is by inference. It may involve inferences that can be done now or in the past but not actually having been done.

The fourth lecture is on the metaphysics of time. Dummett shows  four models. 1. Only the present is real (A theory of time) 2. The future is real but the past is not. 3. The past is part of reality but the future is not. This view shows the past is unaltérable. 4. Past and future are both real. This is basically the 4D B theory of time.

The fifth essay Truth Deniers and Defenders is Dummett's discussion of the exchange between Bernard Williams and Rorty on the relation between justification and truth.

The lectures are intricately connected and engaging, and presented with the author's typical thorough analysis. They are valuable resources to the topic and any study of truth and time.

[Lalax · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The task of the philosopher is neither to belittle truth nor to exalt it, neither to deny it nor to defend it, but to explain why we need the concept and what it is to possess it."