1. Philosophy of Truth
A Mr. C Production

2. Do Now
Please individually write down the philosopher we learned today that you most associate with and why.
Are you skeptic, a rationalist, or a empiricist? Explain why you choose this philosophy thought.

3. theories of Truth
Cognitive Realism- Some things exist independently even people think or don’t think about them. Even if you don’t believe in something, it could still exist.
Examples: Pigs can’t fly, 2x6=12.
Cognitive Relativism- Also known as anti-realism, it believes there’s no mind-independent truths or facts. It looks at truth pragmatically.
Example: 2x6=12 is was created by humans and part of math.
Cognitive relativism is in other words practical sense, you just do the math problem and that’s it. Cognitive Realism goes in deeper depth with the math problem.

4. The origins of these theories
Cognitive realism can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle.
Both men defined truth as correspondence between facts and statements.
As for cognitive relativism, its roots come from Protagoras. What we think is true is so.
Remember when learned about these guys earlier this week.

5. Bertrand Russell
Russell was known for the correspondence theory of truth.
Knowledge by acquaintance, example appearance- I seem to see a train on a railroad. Believing is what makes this and any proposition true.
Knowledge by description- You’re knowing that you’re seeing a train on a railroad. Your belief can seem false.
Descriptive knowledge can have opposites of true or false, but acquaintance knowledge does not accept the opposites.
Bertrand lived until he was 97 years old. He was also math philosopher. This happens to me all the time when I wait for the train in New York, my knowledge of acquaintance is that I see a bright light so I immediately think it’s a train, I am believing that. However, when the train doesn’t come after 20 minutes then my description takes over- I have now my doubt and suspicion that the light wasn’t the train.

6. correspondence theory of truth’s problems
It has a number of difficulties associated with it.
1st off the external world is an assumption it has.
BUT where’s the proof for the external world?
2nd we don’t know what an actual fact is. It can be discussed identified without the proposition- This is a problem.
The external world is made up events or objects that our mind accepts are real.

7. Russell’s view on the future
Do you really believe what Russell said in this video is how we should treat our future.

8. Pragmatic Theory of Truth
Created by William James, it makes the least claims.
It looks at truth as being a process. There is no absolute truth.
His belief basically said that we don’t know really anything/no ultimate knowledge on anything.
What you know is true enough for a specific function.
Ex: You walk out of my classroom, you accomplish this feat then it’s the actual truth.
James’ father was a philosopher, originally from NY he wrote The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, it was his most famous work.
Circumstances a storm could hit the school and it prevents you and the rest of the class from leaving- then the truth isn’t real. You couldn’t walk out of my classroom.

9. Criticism of the pragmatic theory
A lot of people say that truth is at the decision of human communities.
Judges or juries can determine a person’s conviction even though that person is claiming to be telling the “truth”.
Who are they to judge the truth?

10. “There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough”- William James
What does James mean by this quote?
Please raise your hands and I’ll hear you individually.

11. Dennett Reading
Please follow along as I read this excerpt, I will pause periodically to ask questions.

12. Activity
Out of the philosophers we learned about today (Russell, James, and Dennett) whose theory appealed to you the most and why.
Please discuss with a classmate and we will share our findings if time permits.