Relative Truth

Introduction to Relative Truth

Nor are meta-linguistic claims such as ‘the proposition that Socrates was a philosopher is true’, ‘what John asserted at 3 o’clock on January 15, 2002 is false’, and ‘Since John said that it’s raining on January 15, 2002, and Mary said that it’s not raining on January 15, 2002, John and Mary disagree about whether it is raining on January 15, 2002’. There are two reasons why such talk, in stand...

1 Relative Truth

Future Contingents and Relative Truth

If it is not now determined whether there will be a sea battle tomorrow, can an assertion that there will be one be true? The problem has persisted because there are compelling arguments on both sides. If there are objectively possible futures which would make the prediction true and others which would make it false, symmetry considerations seem to forbid counting it either true or false. Yet i...

From relative truth to Finean non-factualism

From Relative Truth to Finean Non-Factualism Alexander Jackson Abstract: This paper compares two ‘relativist’ theories about deliciousness: truth-relativism, and Kit Fine’s non-factualism about a subject-matter. Contemporary truth-relativism is presented as a linguistic thesis; its metaphysical underpinning is often neglected. I distinguish three views about the obtaining of worldly states of a...

Time Dilation, Context, and Relative Truth *

1. Physics and Semantics A passenger boards a fast train. It takes her some distance, reverses course, and returns to the starting platform. She reports that according to her clock, the trip took n seconds. An observer who remained behind on the platform gets a different reading. Using his clock, he records a longer time interval m. These claims are compatible with the clocks being in perfect o...