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Students Zone / Questions / Chapter 6: Truth

1. Is there a satisfactory theory of truth?

2. Does a priori knowledge have to be trivial?

3. ‘Propositions are either certain and uninformative or informative and not certain. Metaphysical knowledge which claims to be both certain and informative is therefore in principle not possible.’ (Berlin). Explain and discuss the significance of Berlin’s statement.

4. Is truth merely a reflection of the strength of our convictions?

5. To what extent can I argue that if a belief is useful we are more likely to believe that it is true?

6. Can we usefully dispense with the notion of truth as Rorty insists?

7. Explain how Kant sets the boundaries to valid thought? Why is it that any attempt to go beyond these results in antinomies or paradoxes?

8. Distinguish between ontological and epistemic theories of truth. What are the strengths and weaknesses of both?

9. Explain what Tarski meant by a ‘metalanguage’ and how this helps to solve the self-referential problem of the correspondence theory.