Aquinas also restated the theory as: “A judgment is said to be true when it conforms to the external reality” Ĭorrespondence theory practically operates on the assumption that truth is a matter of accurately copying what was much later called "objective reality" and then representing it in thoughts, words and other symbols. An example of correspondence theory is the statement by the Thirteenth Century philosopher/theologian Thomas Aquinas: Veritas est adaequatio rei et intellectus ("Truth is the equation of things and intellect"), a statement which Aquinas attributed to the Ninth Century neoplatonist Isaac Israeli. This class of theories holds that the truth or the falsity of a representation is determined in principle solely by how it relates to "things", by whether it accurately describes those "things". It is a traditional model which goes back at least to some of the classical Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. This type of theory posits a relationship between thoughts or statements on the one hand, and things or objects on the other. Main article: Correspondence theory of truthĬorrespondence theories state that true beliefs and true statements correspond to the actual state of affairs. There also have more recently arisen " deflationary" or "minimalist" theories of truth based on the idea that the application of a term like true to a statement does not assert anything significant about it, for instance, anything about its nature, but that the label truth is a tool of discourse used to express agreement, to emphasize claims, or to form certain types of generalizations. Each theory presents perspectives that are widely shared by published scholars. The question of what is a proper basis for deciding how words, symbols, ideas and beliefs may properly be considered true, whether by a single person or an entire society, is dealt with by the five major substantive theories introduced below. Romance languages use terms following the Latin veritas, while the Greek aletheia, Russian pravda and Serbian istina have separate etymological origins. To express "factuality", North Germanic opted for nouns derived from sanna "to assert, affirm", while continental West Germanic (German and Dutch) opted for continuations of wâra "faith, trust, pact" (cognate to Slavic věra "(religious) faith", but influenced by Latin verus). Thus, 'truth' involves both the quality of "faithfulness, fidelity, loyalty, sincerity, veracity", and that of "agreement with fact or reality", in Anglo-Saxon expressed by sōþ (Modern English sooth).Īll Germanic languages besides English have introduced a terminological distinction between truth "fidelity" and truth "factuality". Old Norse trú, "faith, word of honour religious faith, belief" (archaic English troth "loyalty, honesty, good faith", compare Ásatrú). The English word true is from Old English ( West Saxon) (ge)tríewe, tréowe, cognate to Old Saxon (gi)trûui, Old High German (ga)triuwu (Modern German treu "faithful"), Old Norse tryggr, Gothic triggws, all from a Proto-Germanic *trewwj- "having good faith".
Like troth, it is a -th nominalisation of the adjective true (Old English tréowe). The English word truth is from Old English tríewþ, tréowþ, trýwþ, Middle English trewþe, cognate to Old High German triuwida, Old Norse tryggð.
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There are differing claims on such questions as what constitutes truth what things are truthbearers capable of being true or false how to define and identify truth the roles that revealed and acquired knowledge play and whether truth is subjective or objective, relative or absolute.įurther information: Veritas, Aletheia, and Tryggvi Various theories and views of truth continue to be debated among scholars and philosophers. Since there is no single accepted criterion, they can all be considered " theories". Defining this potency and applicability can be looked upon as "criteria", and the method used to recognize a "truth" is termed a criterion of truth. As such, "truth" must have a beneficial use in order to be retained within language. However, language and words are essentially "tools" by which humans convey information to one another.
The direct opposite of truth is falsehood, which can correspondingly take logical, factual or ethical meanings. In a common usage, it also means constancy or sincerity in action or character. It can also mean having fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with fact or reality. Time Saving Truth from Falsehood and Envy, François Lemoyne, 1737
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