塔斯基：语义性真理论与符合论

塔斯基语义性真理论是否为符合论是一个争论的热点。目前有两种观点认为它是符合论,其一是根据对象语言与元语言的区分,到目前为止此观点已受到激烈批评,其二是根据“满足”概念的递归定义,此观点到目前为止还没有被人详细地阐明。本文认为塔斯基的语义性真理论是符合论,为此将首先对第一种观点及其反对意见进行深入分析,并得出结论认为该观点不能成立,继而详细阐明第二种观点,表明它是塔斯基本人的意图。在讨论中本文将对一系列的逻辑哲学问题进行探讨。     

真与意义理论

意义理论是语言哲学的核心内容。意义理论与语言相关,因而与对语言的使用和理解相关,与语言所表达的世界相关。今天,意义理论受到哲学家们的高度重视,有关讨论广泛而深入,观点各异,成果多样。在今天的讨论中,真之极小论、真之紧缩论、真之去引号论、真之代句子理论等一些新的真之理论业已成为重点。但是,真之符合论、真之实用论等传统理论也仍然被涉及,并且由于深入讨论而得到新的认识,尽管许多结论是否定的。在我看来,意义理论的最大特征是与真这个概念密切相关,或者说,真这个概念是意义理论的核心概念。正因为这样。如今的讨论,无论是什么观点,几乎都预设了一个前提:塔尔斯基的语义理论。如果引申开来,甚至可以看到,正是基于真的解释,人们对意义理论形成不同的看法。比如戴维森的意义理论被称为真之理论,即基于T语句提出了一种如何理解语言的真之理论,而达米特则认为这只是对部分语言提出解释,并没有对整个语言的运作提出一种解释。所以,戴维森的解释顸设了对真这个概念的理解,他认为要围绕着真来考虑问题,而达米特虽然承认真这一概念的重要,却认为对真这个概念本身要进行思考,而且要超出这个概念来考虑我们的语言。我翻译过奎因的《真之追求》(三联书店,1999年)、达米特的《分析哲学的起源》(上海译文出版社,2005年),戴维森的《真与谓述》(上海译文出版社,2007年即出),也翻译过一些文章发表在本刊(例如参见《世界哲学》2006年第1期、第2期)。我希望国内读者能够了解和重视这方面的研究情况。编译下面这些内容,也有相同的意思。     

真之符合论与真之等同论辨析

传统的真之符合论面临一个问题:由谁来判别一个命题是否符合事实?为从上帝之眼回归人类之眼,普特南提出内在实在论,以区别于外在实在论。这里进而提出关于真的内在符合论,以区别于传统的外在符合论;其关键在于把事实看作语言性的,并将语言性事实的观点分为外延等同论和内涵等同论。从主观性和客观性的角度看,内涵等同论和外在符合论处于两个极端,而外延等同论和内在符合论则处于中道,并且是二位一体的。在哲学史上,这两种符合论和两种等同论的要素贯穿于弗雷格、罗素、塔斯基和普特南等人的真理论之中。     

Truth Values and Proof Theory

I present an account of truth values for classical logic, intuitionistic logic, and the modal logic S5, in which truth values are not a fundamental category from which the logic is defined, but rather, an idealisation of more fundamental logical features in the proof theory for each system. The result is not a new set of semantic structures, but a new understanding of how the existing semantic structures may be understood in terms of a more fundamental notion of logical consequence.     

Jihad and Just War Theory: Dissonance and Truth

Abstract :  The Christian tradition of just war does not have a New Testament foundation but is a tradition that developed after the conversion of Constantine and Christianity's emergence as the state religion of the empire. In Islam, however, just war has been an issue since its foundational period, because while Christianity did not get involved in statecraft until Constantine, Islam dates its calendar literally from the establishment of the first statecraft in Medina. However, distortion of this tradition has occurred in both religions: we have a distorted justification of just war tradition in Christianity, and a distorted understanding of jihad as simply a holy war in Islam. This paper tries to deconstruct both these traditions and create a new hermeneutics for contemporary times.     

Semantic Information and the Correctness Theory of Truth

Semantic information is usually supposed to satisfy the veridicality thesis: p qualifies as semantic information only if p is true. However, what it means for semantic information to be true is often left implicit, with correspondentist interpretations representing the most popular, default option. The article develops an alternative approach, namely a correctness theory of truth (CTT) for semantic information. This is meant as a contribution not only to the philosophy of information but also to the philosophical debate on the nature of truth. After the introduction, in Sect. 2, semantic information is shown to be translatable into propositional semantic information (i). In Sect. 3, i is polarised into a query (Q) and a result (R), qualified by a specific context, a level of abstraction and a purpose. This polarization is normalised in Sect. 4, where [Q + R] is transformed into a Boolean question and its relative yes/no answer [Q + A]. This completes the reduction of the truth of i to the correctness of A. In Sects. 5 and 6, it is argued that (1) A is the correct answer to Q if and only if (2) A correctly saturates Q by verifying and validating it (in the computer science’s sense of “verification” and “validation”); that (2) is the case if and only if (3) [Q + A] generates an adequate model (m) of the relevant system (s) identified by Q; that (3) is the case if and only if (4) m is a proxy of s (in the computer science’s sense of “proxy”) and (5) proximal access to m commutes with the distal access to s (in the category theory’s sense of “commutation”); and that (5) is the case if and only if (6) reading/writing (accessing, in the computer science’s technical sense of the term) m enables one to read/write (access) s. Sect. 7 provides some further clarifications about CTT, in the light of semantic paradoxes. Section 8 draws a general conclusion about the nature of CTT as a theory for systems designers not just systems users. In the course of the article all technical expressions from computer science are explained.     

Set-Theoretic Absoluteness and the Revision Theory of Truth

We describe the solution of the Limit Rule Problem of Revision Theory and discuss the philosophical consequences of the fact that the truth set of Revision Theory is a complete 1/2 set.     

Quine and the Limit Assumption in Peirce's Theory of Truth

Quine rejects Peirce's theory of truth because, among other things, its notion of a limit of a sequence of theories is defective in that the notion of a limit depends on that of nearer than which is defined for numbers but not for theories. This paper shows that the missing definition of nearer than applied to theories can be supplied from within Quine's own epistemology. The upshot is that either Quine's epistemology must be rejected or Peirce's pragmatic theory of truth is partially vindicated.     

A Minimalist Theory of Truth

This article, after briefly discussing Alfred Tarski's influential theory of truth, turns to a more recent theory of truth, a deflationary, or minimalist, theory. One of the chief elements of a deflationary, or minimalist, theory of truth is that it replaces the question of what truth is with the question of what “true” does. After setting out the central features of the minimalist theory of truth, the article explains the motivation for opting for such a position. In addition, it provides some reasons for thinking that such a theory of truth is “minimal” or “deflationary” in the way that contemporary truth theorists have claimed it to be.     

论前期维特根斯坦的逻辑真理观

维特根斯坦在其早期代表作《逻辑哲学论》中深入探讨了逻辑真理的理解问题.然而当今学界流行的看法是,维特根斯坦有着最狭隘的逻辑真理观逻辑真理即重言式.本文试图澄明维氏使用重言式概念的原初含义,并从其以逻辑为基础的世界观、真值函项理论及优范式理论等角度分别加以阐述,说明维氏所理解的逻辑真理乃穷尽可能的必然,而对逻辑真理的这种理解同样可推广到谓词逻辑,并指出用穷尽可能来定义逻辑必然并不会导致恶性循环.     

论戴维森的真之理论

毫无疑问,真之理论在戴维森的哲学理论中扮演着核心地位,如果不理解他的真之理论也就无法理解他的整个哲学思想。虽然在他的哲学生涯中,戴维森对真的理解并非完全保持一致,甚至在某些地方曾出现过重大转变,但这并不妨碍他的真之理论形成一个整体。因为戴维森在很多关键地方,对真的理解保持着不变。戴维森对真的理解可以从两个方面进行阐述。从否定方面看,戴维森认为真是不可被定义的,因为它是一个最简单的概念;其次,真之紧缩论对真的解释是不能成立的,因为它并不能把握真的实质。从积极方面看,戴维森肯定了真与人之间的紧密关系,并认为人是真的前提;同时,他又强调了真与信念、愿望以及意义之间的联系,认为对这些概念的解释必须以真为基础。     

The Elimination of Self-Reference: Generalized Yablo-Series and the Theory of Truth

Although it was traditionally thought that self-reference is a crucial ingredient of semantic paradoxes, Yablo (1993, 2004) showed that this was not so by displaying an infinite series of sentences none of which is self-referential but which, taken together, are paradoxical. Yablo’s paradox consists of a countable series of linearly ordered sentences s(0), s(1), s(2),... , where each s(i) says: For each k > i, s(k) is false (or equivalently: For no k > i is s(k) true). We generalize Yablo’s results along two dimensions. First, we study the behavior of generalized Yablo-series in which each sentence s(i) has the form: For Q k > i, s(k) is true, where Q is a generalized quantifier (e.g., no, every, infinitely many, etc). We show that under broad conditions all the sentences in the series must have the same truth value, and we derive a characterization of those values of Q for which the series is paradoxical. Second, we show that in the Strong Kleene trivalent logic Yablo’s results are a special case of a more general fact: under certain conditions, any semantic phenomenon that involves self-reference can be emulated without self-reference. Various translation procedures that eliminate self-reference from a non-quantificational language are defined and characterized. An Appendix sketches an extension to quantificational languages, as well as a new argument that Yablo’s paradox and the translations we offer do not involve self-reference.     

Probability for the Revision Theory of Truth

Journal of Philosophical Logic - We investigate how to assign probabilities to sentences that contain a type-free truth predicate. These probability values track how often a sentence is satisfied...     

An Identity Theory of Truth

Book Information An Identity Theory of Truth. By Dodd Julian. Macmillan. Basingstoke. 2000. Pp. ix + 199. Hardback, £42.50.     

理论、真理与后革命

后革命是指社会进入了以解决个人问题、全球和全人类问题为主要内容的历史时期。在此时期，理论主要是表达个人的思想观点、追求共识和表达自由的权利；真理也从一元性走向多元性，精神文化、思想学术的发展和繁荣有了不同于革命时期的新机制。