Peircers,
Here is Kant on the correspondence theory of truth:
<quote>
Truth is said to consist in the agreement of knowledge with the object.
According to this mere verbal definition, then, my knowledge, in order to be
true, must agree with the object. Now, I can only compare the object with my
knowledge by this means, namely, ''by taking knowledge of it''. My knowledge,
then, is to be verified by itself, which is far from being sufficient for truth.
For as the object is external to me, and the knowledge is in me, I can only
judge whether my knowledge of the object agrees with my knowledge of the object.
Such a circle in explanation was called by the ancients ''Diallelos''. And
the logicians were accused of this fallacy by the sceptics, who remarked that
this account of truth was as if a man before a judicial tribunal should make a
statement, and appeal in support of it to a witness whom no one knows, but who
defends his own credibility by saying that the man who had called him as a
witness is an honourable man. (Kant, 45).
</quote>
Kant, Immanuel (1800), ''Introduction to Logic''.
Reprinted, Thomas Kingsmill Abbott (trans.),
Dennis Sweet (intro.), Barnes and Noble,
New York, NY, 2005.
According to Kant, the definition of truth as correspondence
is a "mere verbal definition", here making use of Aristotle's
distinction between a ''nominal definition'', a definition in
name only, and a ''real definition'', a definition that shows
the ''true cause'' or essence of the thing whose term is being
defined. From Kant's account of the history, the definition of
truth as correspondence was already in dispute from classical
times, the "skeptics" criticizing the "logicians" for a form of
circular reasoning, though the extent to which the "logicians"
actually held such a theory is not evaluated in this account.
Regards,
Jon
--
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