Research project
Meta-Alethic Expressivism: A New Theory of Thinking and Talking about Truth
- Start date: 1 September 2018
- End date: 31/08/21
- Funder: British Academy
- Primary investigator: Dr Will Gamester
Description
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of truth – not just for academics and philosophers, but for all of us. What we take to be true determines how we view the world around us, and how we view the world around us determines how we go about living our lives.
This project explores philosophical questions about the nature of alethic thought and talk: about what it is to think that something is true and about what we mean when we say that something is true.
At base, I suggest, alethic judgements are best construed not as doxastic, representational states (judgements about how the world is), but conative, motivational states (judgements about how to live). Roughly, to decide that something is true is to form an intention or plan about what to believe. This is Meta-Alethic Expressivism, a new theory of thinking and talking about truth.