From Truth to Reality: New Essays in Logic and Metaphysics

by Dyke; Heather

• ISBN13: 9780415988452
• ISBN10: 0415988454
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-11-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Questions about truth and questions about reality are intimately connected. One can ask whether numbers exist by asking "Are there numbers?" But one can also ask what arguably amounts to the same question by asking "Is the sentence 'There are numbers' true?" Such semantic ascent implies that reality can be investigated by investigating our true sentences. This line of thought was dominant in twentieth century philosophy, but is now beginning to be called into question. InFrom Truth to Reality, Heather Dyke brings together some of the foremost metaphysicians to examine approaches to truth, reality, and the connections between the two. This collection features new and previously unpublished material by JC Beall, Mark Colyvan, Michael Devitt, John Heil, Frank Jackson, Fred Kroon, D. H. Mellor, Luca Moretti, Alan Musgrave, Robert Nola, J. J. C. Smart, Paul Snowdon, and Daniel Stoljar.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Truth
"Unsettledness" in a Bivalent Language: A Modest, Nonepistemic Idea	p. 17
Vagueness and Truth	p. 29
Reality
Biological Realisms	p. 43
Pleonastic Platonism	p. 66
Anomalous Monism	p. 85
On the Metaphysical Implications of Some Epistemological Commonplaces	p. 99
Mathematical Platonism	p. 112
Truth and Reality
On Creeping Minimalism and the Nature of Minimal Entities	p. 123
Hempel's Dilemma	p. 181
From Reality to Truth: The Case of Electrons and Electron Theory	p. 198
Reflections on the Gem	p. 232
On the Sortal Dependency of Individuation Thesis	p. 254
Truthmakers for What?	p. 272
References	p. 291
Index	p. 305
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