RE: Is the Argument from Degrees contradictory to the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics?
June 26, 2023 at 6:59 pm
(June 26, 2023 at 5:52 pm)HappySkeptic Wrote: The Correspondence Theory of Truth is the one that most people use in science and their daily life. There is a sense that there is a single reality, and that statements are correct when they correspond to reality. This single reality is what allows us to ask questions and get consistent answers.
The problem with it, is that there is no way to prove this "thing that truth corresponds to" actually exists. All we have is our consistent set of answers to questions, with which we build models. Our models are useful if they provide predictions. The "things" within the model have no guarantee of existence beyond their use in the model.
An example is Space-Time. Does it exist, or is it just a mathematical abstraction? I don't know. We could find another model that doesn't include it.
Good points.
As I understand it, the Correspondence Theory goes back to Aristotle.
Thomas Aquinas added to the discussion that such a theory has both metaphysical and semantic aspects. I think that's pertinent to what you're talking about here.
If we assume that there's a "something" that actually exists (e.g. space-time, in your example) then the theory is a metaphysical theory. Correspondence Theory would then rely on truth about things, and not just models.
The semantic version is more about the models.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth...spondence/
