DOES SOCRATES VINDICATE THE COHERENCE THEORY OF TRUTH?

Warren Deane

Abstract


Within Plato's Socratic Dialogues we routinely observe the character of Socrates employing a formal, yet largely unexplained method of investigation into the beliefs that his interlocutors hold as true. Socrates even goes so far as to claim there will be discord within them their whole life should they not be able refute one of his controversial and counter-intuitive revealed truths. With the beliefs under investigation striking to the core of how one should live a good life, this paper seeks to investigate whether Socrates' formal method justifies him in making the claims he does. After exposing the methodology of his technique, we turn to investigate the theory of truth that the method represents, seeking to ascertain a greater understanding of what truth means to Socrates when he makes the claim that a belief is true.

References


Braddon-Mitchell, D. and Jackson, F. (2007). The Philosophy of Mind and Cognition. Oxford, U.K., Blackwell Publishing.

Glanzberg, M. (2009). 'Truth', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 ed.). Retrieved 18/01/2010, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2009/entries/truth/

Joachim, H. H. (1906). The Nature of Truth. Oxford, U.K., Clarendon Press.

Malpas, J. (2009). 'Donald Davidson', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2009 ed.). Retrieved 21/02/2010, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2009/entries/davidson/

Plato (1994). Gorgias (R. Waterfield, Trans.). Oxford, U.K., Oxford University Press.

Plato (1997). Apology (M. C. Stokes, Trans.). Warminster, England, Aris & Phillips Ltd.

Plato (2007). Crito (B. Jowett, Trans.). Plato's Complete Works. Readdle.com, iTunes App Store or http://readdle.com/products/plato

Plato (2007). Euthypro (B. Jowett, Trans.). Plato's Complete Works. Readdle.com, iTunes App Store or http://readdle.com/products/plato

Putnam, H. (1981). Reason, Truth and History. Cambridge, U.K., Cambridge University Press.

Ridley, A. and Warburton N. (2008). Aaron Ridley on Neitzsche on Art and Truth. Philosophy Bites. N. Warburton, http://philosophybites.com.

Robinson, R. (1953). 'Elenchus', in Plato's Earlier Dialetic Retrieved 04/01/2010, from http://www.ditext.com/robinson/dia2.html.

Robinson, R. (1953). 'Elenchus: Direct and Indirect', in Plato's Earlier Dialetic Retrieved 04/01/2010, from http://www.ditext.com/robinson/dia3.html

Russell, B. (2004). 'On The Nature of Truth', in Theories of Truth. F. F. Schmitt. Oxford, U.K., Blackwell Publishing.

Schmitt, F. F., Ed. (2004). Theories of Truth. Blackwell Readings in Philosophy. Oxford, U.K., Blackwell Publishing.

Vlastos, G. (1982). 'The Socratic Elenchus'. Journal of Philosophy, 79(11): 711-714. Retrieved from JSTOR journals database.

Vlastos, G. (1994). Socratic Studies. Cambridge, U.K., Cambridge University Press.

Young, J. O. (2008). 'The Coherence Theory of Truth.' The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 ed.). Retrieved 18/01/2010, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/truth-coherence/


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.