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A truth-bearer is an entity that is said to be either true or false and nothing else. The thesis that some things are true while others are false has led to different theories about the nature of these entities. Since there is divergence of opinion on the matter, the term truth-bearer is used to be neutral among the various theories. Truth-bearer candidates include propositions, sentences, sentence-tokens, statements, beliefs, thoughts, intuitions, utterances, and judgements but different authors exclude one or more of these, deny their existence, argue that they are true only in a derivative sense, assert or assume that the terms are synonymous, or seek to avoid addressing their distinction or do not clarify it.
Introduction
Some distinctions and terminology as used in this article, based on Wolfram 1989 (Chapter 2 Section1) follow. It should be understood that the terminology described is not always used in the ways set out, and it is introduced solely for the purposes of discussion in this article. Use is made of the type–token and use–mention distinctions. Reflection on occurrences of numerals might be helpful. In grammar a sentence can be a declaration, an explanation, a question, a command. In logic a declarative sentence is considered to be a sentence that can be used to communicate truth. Some sentences which are grammatically declarative are not logically so.
A character is a typographic character (printed or written) etc.
A word-token is a pattern of characters. A word-type is an identical pattern of characters. A meaningful-word-token is a meaningful pattern of characters. Two word-tokens which mean the same are of the same word-meaning
A sentence-token is a pattern of word-tokens. A meaningful-sentence-token is a meaningful sentence-token or a meaningful pattern of meaningful-word-tokens. Two sentence-tokens are of the same sentence-type if they are identical patterns of word-tokens characters A declarative-sentence-token is a sentence-token which that can be used to communicate truth or convey information. A meaningful-declarative-sentence-token is a meaningful declarative-sentence-token Two meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens are of the same meaningful-declarative-sentence-type if they are identical patterns of word-tokens. A nonsense-declarative-sentence-token is a declarative-sentence-token which is not a meaningful-declarative-sentence-token. A meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-use occurs when and only when a meaningful-declarative-sentence-token is used declaratively.
A referring-expression is expression that can be used to pick out or refer to particular entity. A referential success is a referring-expression's success in identifying a particular entity. A referential failure is a referring-expression's failure to identify a particular entity. A referentially-successful-meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-use is a meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-use containing no referring-expression that fails to identify a particular entity.
Sentences in natural languages
As Aristotle pointed out, since some sentences are questions, commands, or meaningless, not all can be truth-bearers. If in the proposal "What makes the sentence Snow is white true is the fact that snow is white" it is assumed that sentences like Snow is white are truth-bearers, then it would be more clearly stated as "What makes the meaningful-declarative-sentence Snow is white true is the fact that snow is white".
Theory 1a:
All and only meaningful-declarative-sentence-types are truth-bearers
Criticisms of theory 1a
Some meaningful-declarative-sentence-types will be both truth and false, contrary to our definition of truth-bearer, for example, (i) in liar-paradox sentences such as "This sentence is false", (see Fisher 2008) (ii) and in time, place, and person-dependent sentences such as "It is noon", "This is London", and "I'm Spartacus".
Anyone may ..ascribe truth and falsity to the deterministic propositional signs we here call utterances. But if he takes this line, he must, like Leibniz, recognise that truth cannot be an affair solely of actual utterances, since it makes sense to talk of the discovery of previously un-formulated truths. (Kneale, W&M (1962))
Revision to Theory 1a, by making a distinction between type and token.
To escape the time, place and person dependent criticism the theory can be revised, making use or the type–token distinction, as follows
Theory 1b:
All and only meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens are truth-bearers
Quine argued that the primary truth-bearers are utterances
Having now recognised in a general way that what are true are sentences, we must turn to certain refinements. What are best seen as primarily true or false are not sentences but events of utterances. If a man utters the words 'It is raining' in the rain, or the words 'I am hungry' while hungry, his verbal performance counts as true. Obviously one utterance of a sentence may be true and another utterance of the same sentence be false.
Source: Quine 1970, page 13
Criticisms of theory 1b
(i) Theory 1b prevents sentences which are meaningful-declarative-sentence-types from being truth-bearers. If all meaningful-declarative-sentence-types typographically identical to "The whole is greater than the part" are true then it surely follows that the meaningful-declarative-sentence-type "The whole is greater than the part" is true (just as all meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens typographically identical to "The whole is greater than the part" are English entails the meaningful-declarative-sentence-types "The whole is greater than the part" is English) (ii) Some meaningful-declarative-sentences-tokens will be both truth and false, or neither, contrary to our definition of truth-bearer. E.g. A token, t, of the meaningful-declarative-sentence-type ‘P: I'm Spartacus’, written on a placard. The token t would be true when used by Spartacus, false when used by Bertrand Russell, neither true nor false when mentioned by Spartacus or when being neither used nor mentioned.
Theory 1b.1
All meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-uses are truth-bearers; some meaningful-declarative-sentence-types are truth-bearers
To allow that at least some meaningful-declarative-sentence-types can be truth-bearers, Quine allowed so-called "eternal sentences" to be truth-bearers.
In Peirces's terminology, utterances and inscriptions are tokens of the sentence or other linguistic expression concerned; and this linguistic expression is the type of those utterances and inscriptions. In Frege's terminology, truth and falsity are the two truth values. Succinctly then, an eternal sentence is a sentence whose tokens have the same truth values.... What are best regarded as true and false are not propositions but sentence tokens, or sentences if they are eternal
Quine 1970 pages 13–14
Theory 1c
All and only meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-uses are truth-bearers
Arguments for theory 1c
By respecting the use–mention distinction, Theory 1c avoids criticism (ii) of Theory 1b.
Criticisms of theory 1c
(i) Theory 1c does not avoid criticism (i) of Theory 1b. (ii) meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-uses are events (located in particular positions in time and space) and entail a user. This implies that (a) nothing (no truth-bearer) exists and hence nothing (no truth-bearer) is true (or false) anytime anywhere (b) nothing (no truth-bearer) exists and hence nothing (no truth-bearer) is true (or false) in the absence of a user. This implies that (a) nothing was true before the evolution of users capable of using meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens and (b) nothing is true (or false) except when being used (asserted) by a user. Intuitively the truth (or falsity) of ‘The tree continues to be in the quad’ continues in the absence of an agent to asset it.
Referential Failure A problem of some antiquity is the status of sentences such as U: The King of France is bald V: The highest prime has no factors W: Pegasus did not exist Such sentences purport to refer to entitles which do not exist (or do not always exist). They are said to suffer from referential failure. We are obliged to choose either (a) That they are not truth-bearers and consequently neither true nor false or (b) That they are truth-bearers and per se are either true or false.
Theory 1d
All and only referentially-successful-meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-uses are truth-bearers.
Theory 1d takes option (a) above by declaring that meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-uses that fail referentially are not truth-bearers.
Theory 1e
All referentially-successful-meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-uses are truth-bearers; some meaningful-declarative-sentence-types are truth-bearers
Arguments for theory 1e
Theory 1e has the same advantages as Theory 1d. Theory 1e allows for the existence of truth-bearers (i.e., meaningful-declarative-sentence-types) in the absence of users and between uses. If for any x, where x is a use of a referentially successful token of a meaningful-declarative-sentence-type y x is a truth-bearer then y is a truth-bearer otherwise y is not a truth bearer. E.g. If all uses of all referentially successful tokens of the meaningful-declarative-sentence-type ‘The whole is greater than the part’ are truth-bearers (i.e. true or false) then the meaningful-declarative-sentence-type ‘The whole is greater than the part’ is a truth-bearer. If some but not all uses of some referentially successful tokens of the meaningful-declarative-sentence-type ‘I am Spartacus’ are true then the meaningful-declarative-sentence-type ‘I am Spartacus’ is not a truth-bearer.
Criticisms of theory 1e
Theory 1e makes implicit use of the concept of an agent or user capable of using (i.e. asserting) a referentially-successful-meaningful-declarative-sentence-token. Although Theory 1e does not depend on the actual existence (now, in the past or in the future) of such users, it does depend on the possibility and cogency of their existence. Consequently, the concept of truth-bearer under Theory 1e is dependent upon giving an account of the concept of a ‘user’. In so far as referentially-successful-meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens are particulars (locatable in time and space) the definition of truth-bearer just in terms of referentially-successful-meaningful-declarative-sentence is attractive to those who are (or would like to be) nominalists. The introduction of ‘use’ and ‘users’ threatens the introduction of intentions, attitudes, minds &c. as less-than welcome ontological baggage.
Sentences in languages of classical logic
In classical logic a sentence in a language is true or false under (and only under) an interpretation and is therefore a truth-bearer. For example, a language in the first-order predicate calculus might include one or more predicate symbols and one or more individual constants and one or more variables. The interpretation of such a language would define a domain (universe of discourse); assign an element of the domain to each individual constant; assign the denotation in the domain of some property to each unary (one-place) predicate symbol.
For example, if a language L consisted in the individual constant a, two unary predicate letters F and G and the variable x, then an interpretation I of L might define the Domain D as animals, assign Socrates to a, the denotation of the property being a man to F, and the denotation of the property being mortal to G. Under the interpretation I of L, Fa would be true if, and only if Socrates is a man, and the sentence x(Fx
Gx) would be true if, and only if all men (in the domain) are mortal. In some texts an interpretation is said to give "meaning" to the symbols of the language. Since Fa has the value true under some (but not all) interpretations, it is not the sentence-type Fa which is said to be true but only some sentence-tokens of Fa under particular interpretations. A token of Fa without an interpretation is neither true nor false. Some sentences of a language like L are said to be true under all interpretations of the sentence, e.g.
x(Fx
Fx), such sentences are termed logical truths, but again such sentences are neither true nor false in the absence of an interpretation.
Propositions
A number of authors use the term proposition as truth-bearers. There is no single definition or usage. Sometimes it is used to mean a meaningful declarative sentence itself; sometimes it is used to mean the meaning of a meaningful declarative sentence. This provides two possible definitions for the purposes of discussion as below
Theory 2a:
All and only meaningful-declarative-sentences are propositions
Theory 2b:
A meaningful-declarative-sentence-token expresses a proposition; two meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens which have the same meaning express the same proposition; two meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens with different meanings express different propositions.
(cf Wolfram 1989, p. 21)
Proposition is not always used in one or other of these ways.
Criticisms of theory 2a.
- If all and only meaningful-declarative-sentences are propositions, as advanced by Theory 2a, then the terms are synonymous and we can just as well speak of the meaningful-declarative-sentences themselves as the trutbearers - there is no distinct concept of proposition to consider, and the term proposition is literally redundant.
Criticisms of Theory 2b
- Theory 2b entails that if all meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens typographically identical to say, "I am Spartacus" have the same meaning then they (i) express the same proposition (ii) that proposition is both true and false, contrary to the definition of truth-bearer.
- The concept of a proposition in this theory rests upon the concept of meaning as applied to meaningful-declarative-sentences, in a word synonymy among meaningful-declarative-sentence s. Quine 1970 argues that the concept of synonymy among meaningful-declarative-sentences cannot be sustained or made clear, consequently the concepts of "propositions" and "meanings of sentences" are, in effect, vacuous and superfluous
Statements
Many authors consider statements as truth-bearers, though as with the term "proposition" there is divergence in definition and usage of that term. Sometimes 'statements' are taken to be meaningful-declarative-sentences; sometimes they are thought to be what is asserted by a meaningful-declarative-sentence. It is not always clear in which sense the word is used. This provides two possible definitions for the purposes of discussion as below.
A particular concept of a statement was introduced by Strawson in the 1950s.,
Consider the following:
- I: The author of Waverley is dead
- J: The author of Ivanhoe is dead
- K: I am less than six feet tall
- L: I am over six feet tall
- M: The conductor is a bachelor
- N: The conductor is married
On the assumption that the same person wrote Waverley and Ivanhoe, the two distinct patterns of characters (meaningful-declarative-sentences) I and J make the same statement but express different propositions.
The pairs of meaningful-declarative-sentences (K, L) & (M, N) have different meanings, but they are not necessarily contradictory, since K & L may have been asserted by different people, and M & N may have been asserted about different conductors.
What these examples show is that we cannot identify that which is true or false (the statement) with the sentence used in making it; for the same sentence may be used to make different statements, some of them true and some of them false. (Strawson, P.F. (1952))
This suggests:
- Two meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens which say the same thing of the same object(s) make the same statement.
Theory 3a
All and only statements are meaningful-declarative-sentences.
Theory 3b
All and only meaningful-declarative-sentences can be used to make statements
Statement is not always used in one or other of these ways.
Arguments for theory 3a
- "All and only statements are meaningful-declarative-sentences." is either a stipulative definition or a descriptive definition. If the former, the stipulation is useful or it is not; if the latter, either the descriptive definition correctly describes English usage or it does not. In either case no arguments, as such, are applicable
Criticisms of theory 3a
- If the term statement is synonymous with the term meaningful-declarative-sentence, then the applicable criticisms are the same as those outlined under sentence below
- If all and only meaningful-declarative-sentences are statements, as advanced by Theory 3a, then the terms are synonymous and we can just as well speak of the meaningful-declarative-sentences themselves as the truth-bearers – there is no distinct concept of statement to consider, and the term statement is literally redundant.
Thoughts
Frege (1919) argued that an indicative sentence in which we communicate or state something, contains both a thought and an assertion, it expresses the thought, and the thought is the sense of the sentence.
See also
- William Kneale
- Truthmaker Realism
- Barry Smith
Notes
- Character A character is a typographic character (printed or written), a unit of speech, a phoneme, a series of dots and dashes (as sounds, magnetic pulses, printed or written), a flag or stick held at a certain angle, a gesture, a sign as use in sign language, a pattern or raised indentations (as in brail) etc. in other words the sort of things that are commonly described as the elements of an alphabet.
- Word-token A word-token is a pattern of characters.
The pattern of characters A This toucan can catch a can contains six word-tokens
The pattern of characters D He is grnd contains three word-tokens - Word-type A word-type is an identical pattern of characters, .
The pattern of characters A: This toucan can catch a can. contains five word-types (the word-token can occurring twice) - Meaningful-word-token A meaningful-word-token is a meaningful word-token. grnd in D He is grnd. is not meaningful.
- Word-meaning Two word-tokens which mean the same are of the same word-meaning. Only those word-tokens which are meaningful-word-tokens can have the same meaning as another word-token. The pattern of characters A: This toucan can catch a can. contains six word-meanings.
Although it contains only five word-types, the two occurrences of the word-token can have different meanings.
On the assumption that bucket and pail mean the same, the pattern of characters B: If you have a bucket, then you have a pail contains ten word-tokens, seven word-types, and six word-meanings. - Sentence-token A sentence-token is a pattern of word-tokens.
The pattern of characters D: He is grnd is a sentence-token because grnd is a word-token (albeit not a meaningful word-token.) - Meaningful-sentence-token A meaningful-sentence-token is a meaningful sentence-token or a meaningful pattern of meaningful-word-tokens.
The pattern of characters D: He is grnd is not a sentence-token because grnd is not a meaningful word-token. - Sentence-type Two sentence-tokens are of the same sentence-type if they are identical patterns of word-tokens characters, e.g. the sentence-tokens P: I'm Spartacus and Q: I'm Spartacus are of the same sentence-type.
- Declarative-sentence-token A declarative-sentence-token is a sentence-token which that can be used to communicate truth or convey information.
The pattern of characters E: Are you happy? is not a declarative-sentence-token because it interrogative not declarative. - Meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens A meaningful-declarative-sentence-token is a meaningful declarative-sentence-token.
The pattern of characters F: Cats blows the wind is not a meaningful-declarative-sentence-token because it is grammatically ill-formed
The pattern of characters G: This stone is thinking about Vienna is not a meaningful-declarative-sentence-token because thinking cannot be predicated of a stone
The pattern of characters H: This circle is square is not a meaningful-declarative-sentence-token because it is internally inconsistent
The pattern of characters D: He is grnd is not a meaningful-declarative-sentence-token because it contains a word-token (grnd) which is not a meaningful-word-token - Meaningful-declarative-sentence-types Two meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens are of the same meaningful-declarative-sentence-type if they are identical patterns of word-tokens characters, e.g. the sentence-tokens P: I'm Spartacus and Q: I'm Spartacus are of the same meaningful-declarative-sentence-type. In other words a sentence-type is a meaningful-declarative-sentence-type if all tokens of which are meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens
- Nonsense-declarative-sentence-token A nonsense-declarative-sentence-token is a declarative-sentence-token which is not a meaningful-declarative-sentence-token.
The patterns of characters F: Cats blows the wind, G: This stone is thinking about Vienna and H: This circle is square are nonsense-declarative-sentence-tokens because they are declarative-sentence-tokens but not meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens. The pattern of characters D: He is grnd is not a nonsense-declarative-sentence-token because it is not a declarative-sentence-token because it contains a word-token (grnd) which is not a meaningful-word-token. - Meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-use A meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-use occurs when and only when a meaningful-declarative-sentence-token is used declaratively, rather than, say, mentioned.
The pattern of characters T: Spartacus did not eat all his spinach in London on Feb 11th 2009 is a meaningful-declarative-sentence-token but, in all probability, it has never been used declaratively and thus there have been no meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-uses of T. A meaningful-declarative-sentence-token can be used zero to many times. Two meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens-uses of the same meaningful-declarative-sentence-type are identical if and only if they are identical events in time and space with identical users. - Referring-expression An expression that can be used to pick out or refer to particular entity, such as definite descriptions and proper names
- Referential success a referring-expression’s success in identifying a particular entity OR a meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-use’s containing one or more referring-expression all of which succeed in identifying a particular entity
- Referential failure a referring-expression’s failure to identify a particular entity is referentially successful OR a meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-use’s containing one or more referring-expression that fail to identify a particular entity.
- Referentially-successful-meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-use A meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-use containing no referring-expression that fails to identify a particular entity. A use of a token of the meaningful-declarative-sentence-type U: The King of France is bald’' is a referentially-successful-meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-use if (and only if) the embedded referring-expression ‘The King of France’ is referentially successful. No use of a token of the meaningful-declarative-sentence-type V: The highest prime has no factors other than itself and 1 is not a referentially-successful-meaningful-declarative-sentence-token-use since the embedded referring-expression The highest prime is always a referential failure.
- *Meaningful-declarative-sentence-types Two meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens are of the same meaningful-declarative-sentence-type if they are identical patterns of word-tokens characters, e.g. the sentence-tokens P and Q above are of the same meaningful-declarative-sentence-type. In other words a sentence-type is a meaningful-declarative-sentence-type if its tokens of are meaningful-declarative-sentence-tokens
- Utterance: The term utterance is frequently used to mean meaningful-declarative-sentence-token. See e.g. Grice, Meaning, 1957 http://semantics.uchicago.edu/kennedy/classes/f09/semprag1/grice57.pdf
- Eternal Sentence: A sentence that stays forever true, or forever false, independently of any special circumstances under which they happen to be uttered or written. More exactly, a meaningful-declarative-sentence-type whose tokens have the same truth values. E.g. The whole is greater than the part is an eternal sentence, It is raining is not an eternal sentence but It rains in Boston, Mass., on July 15, 1968 is an eternal sentence
References
- e.g.
- "In symbolic logic, a statement (also called a proposition) is a complete declarative sentence, which is either true or false." Vignette 17 Logic, Truth and Language
- "A statement is just that; it is a declaration about something—anything—a declaration which can be evaluated as either true or false. "I am reading this sentence" is a statement, and if indeed you have looked at it and comprehended its meaning, then it is safe to say that that statement can be evaluated as true."Fundamental Logic Concepts: Statement Archived 2008-05-22 at the Wayback Machine
- e.g. * "Some philosophers claim that declarative sentences of natural language have underlying logical forms and that these forms are displayed by formulas of a formal language. Other writers hold that (successful) declarative sentences express propositions; and formulas of formal languages somehow display the forms of these propositions." Shapiro, Stewart (2008). "Classical Logic". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). "Classical Logic" in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
- Wolfram, Sybil (1989). Philosophical Logic. Routledge, London and New York. ISBN 0-415-02317-3.
- Occurrences of numerals
- Fisher (2008). Philosophy of Logic. Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-495-00888-0.
- Kneale, W&M (1962). The development of logic. Oxford. ISBN 0-19-824183-6. page 593
- see Wolfram, Sybil (1989) generally on the application of type–token distinction
- Quine, W.V. (1970). Philosophy of Logic. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-663625-X.
- QUINE, W.V. (1970). Philosophy of Logic. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-663625-X.
- See also First-order logic#Semantics
- e.g. Russell, Wittgenstein, and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/facts/#FacPro: "By ‘proposition’, we shall mean truth-bearer, and remain neutral as to whether truth-bearers are sentences, statements, beliefs or abstract objects expressed by sentences, for instance—except in section 2.4.1."
- McGrath, Matthew, "Propositions", The Stanford (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/propositions/>."The term ‘proposition’ has a broad use in contemporary philosophy. It is used to refer to some or all of the following: the primary bearers of truth-value, the objects of belief and other “propositional attitudes” (i.e., what is believed, doubted, etc.), the referents of that-clauses, and the meanings of sentences."
- Mark, Richard (2006). "Propositions".
On one use of the term, "propositions" are objects of assertion, what successful uses of declarative sentences say. As such, they determine truth-values and truth conditions. On a second, they are the objects of certain psychological states (such as belief and wonder) ascribed with verbs that take sentential complements (such as believe and wonder ). On a third use, they are what are (or could be) named by the complements of such verbs. Many assume that propositions in one sense are propositions in the others.
- "Philosopher's tolerance towards propositions has been encouraged partly by ambiguity in the term 'proposition'. The term often is used simply for the sentences themselves, declarative sentences; and then some writers who do use the term for meanings of sentences are careless about the distinction between sentences and their meanings" Quine 1970, p. 2
- Wolfram, Sybil (1989). Philosophical Logic. Routledge.
- i.e. when expressed by a token-meaningful-declarative-sentence made by Spartacus, and when expressed by somebody other than Spartacus
- "Philosophers who favor propositions have said that propositions are needed because truth only of propositions, not of sentences [read meaningful-declarative-sentences Ed], is intelligible. An unsympathetic answer is that we can explain truth of sentences to be propositional in their own terms: sentences are true whose meanings are true propositions. Any failure of intelligibility here is already his own fault." Quine 1970 page 10
- See also Willard Van Orman Quine, Proposition, The Russell-Myhill Antinomy, also known as the Principles of Mathematics Appendix B Paradox [1]
- See also Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Propositions are abstract entities; they do not exist in space and time. They are sometimes said to be “timeless”, “eternal”, or “omnitemporal” entities. Terminology aside, the essential point is that propositions are not concrete (or material) objects. Nor, for that matter, are they mental entities; they are not “thoughts” as Frege had suggested in the nineteenth century. The theory that propositions are the bearers of truth-values also has been criticized. Nominalists object to the abstract character of propositions. Another complaint is that it’s not sufficiently clear when we have a case of the same propositions as opposed to similar propositions. This is much like the complaint that we can’t determine when two sentences have exactly the same meaning. The relationship between sentences and propositions is a serious philosophical problem."
- Strawson, PF (1950). "On referring". Mind. 9. reprinted in Strawson 1971 and elsewhere
- Strawson, PF (1957). "Propositions, Concepts and Logical Truths". The Philosophical Quarterly. 7 (26): 15–25. doi:10.2307/2216343. JSTOR 2216343. reprinted in Strawson, PF (1971). Logico-Linguistic Papers. Methuen. ISBN 0-416-09010-9.
- Strawson, P.F. (1952). Introduction to Logical Theory. Methuen: London. p. 4. ISBN 0-416-68220-0.
- Frege G. (1919). Die Gedanke, trans. AM and Marcelle Quinton in Frege, G (1956). "The thought: A logical Enquiry". Mind. 65: 289–311. doi:10.1093/mind/65.1.289. reprinted in Strawson 1967.
External links
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
- Truth; 2.1 Sentences as truth-bearers; Glanzberg, Michael
- The Correspondence Theory of Truth; 2. Truthbearers and Truthmakers; David, Marian
This article is written like a personal reflection personal essay or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor s personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style November 2010 Learn how and when to remove this message A truth bearer is an entity that is said to be either true or false and nothing else The thesis that some things are true while others are false has led to different theories about the nature of these entities Since there is divergence of opinion on the matter the term truth bearer is used to be neutral among the various theories Truth bearer candidates include propositions sentences sentence tokens statements beliefs thoughts intuitions utterances and judgements but different authors exclude one or more of these deny their existence argue that they are true only in a derivative sense assert or assume that the terms are synonymous or seek to avoid addressing their distinction or do not clarify it IntroductionSome distinctions and terminology as used in this article based on Wolfram 1989 Chapter 2 Section1 follow It should be understood that the terminology described is not always used in the ways set out and it is introduced solely for the purposes of discussion in this article Use is made of the type token and use mention distinctions Reflection on occurrences of numerals might be helpful In grammar a sentence can be a declaration an explanation a question a command In logic a declarative sentence is considered to be a sentence that can be used to communicate truth Some sentences which are grammatically declarative are not logically so A character is a typographic character printed or written etc A word token is a pattern of characters A word type is an identical pattern of characters A meaningful word token is a meaningful pattern of characters Two word tokens which mean the same are of the same word meaning A sentence token is a pattern of word tokens A meaningful sentence token is a meaningful sentence token or a meaningful pattern of meaningful word tokens Two sentence tokens are of the same sentence type if they are identical patterns of word tokens characters A declarative sentence token is a sentence token which that can be used to communicate truth or convey information A meaningful declarative sentence token is a meaningful declarative sentence token Two meaningful declarative sentence tokens are of the same meaningful declarative sentence type if they are identical patterns of word tokens A nonsense declarative sentence token is a declarative sentence token which is not a meaningful declarative sentence token A meaningful declarative sentence token use occurs when and only when a meaningful declarative sentence token is used declaratively A referring expression is expression that can be used to pick out or refer to particular entity A referential success is a referring expression s success in identifying a particular entity A referential failure is a referring expression s failure to identify a particular entity A referentially successful meaningful declarative sentence token use is a meaningful declarative sentence token use containing no referring expression that fails to identify a particular entity Sentences in natural languagesAs Aristotle pointed out since some sentences are questions commands or meaningless not all can be truth bearers If in the proposal What makes the sentence Snow is white true is the fact that snow is white it is assumed that sentences like Snow is white are truth bearers then it would be more clearly stated as What makes the meaningful declarative sentence Snow is white true is the fact that snow is white Theory 1a All and only meaningful declarative sentence types are truth bearers Criticisms of theory 1a Some meaningful declarative sentence types will be both truth and false contrary to our definition of truth bearer for example i in liar paradox sentences such as This sentence is false see Fisher 2008 ii and in time place and person dependent sentences such as It is noon This is London and I m Spartacus Anyone may ascribe truth and falsity to the deterministic propositional signs we here call utterances But if he takes this line he must like Leibniz recognise that truth cannot be an affair solely of actual utterances since it makes sense to talk of the discovery of previously un formulated truths Kneale W amp M 1962 Revision to Theory 1a by making a distinction between type and token To escape the time place and person dependent criticism the theory can be revised making use or the type token distinction as follows Theory 1b All and only meaningful declarative sentence tokens are truth bearers Quine argued that the primary truth bearers are utterances Having now recognised in a general way that what are true are sentences we must turn to certain refinements What are best seen as primarily true or false are not sentences but events of utterances If a man utters the words It is raining in the rain or the words I am hungry while hungry his verbal performance counts as true Obviously one utterance of a sentence may be true and another utterance of the same sentence be false Source Quine 1970 page 13 Criticisms of theory 1b i Theory 1b prevents sentences which are meaningful declarative sentence types from being truth bearers If all meaningful declarative sentence types typographically identical to The whole is greater than the part are true then it surely follows that the meaningful declarative sentence type The whole is greater than the part is true just as all meaningful declarative sentence tokens typographically identical to The whole is greater than the part are English entails the meaningful declarative sentence types The whole is greater than the part is English ii Some meaningful declarative sentences tokens will be both truth and false or neither contrary to our definition of truth bearer E g A token t of the meaningful declarative sentence type P I m Spartacus written on a placard The token t would be true when used by Spartacus false when used by Bertrand Russell neither true nor false when mentioned by Spartacus or when being neither used nor mentioned Theory 1b 1 All meaningful declarative sentence token uses are truth bearers some meaningful declarative sentence types are truth bearers To allow that at least some meaningful declarative sentence types can be truth bearers Quine allowed so called eternal sentences to be truth bearers In Peirces s terminology utterances and inscriptions are tokens of the sentence or other linguistic expression concerned and this linguistic expression is the type of those utterances and inscriptions In Frege s terminology truth and falsity are the two truth values Succinctly then an eternal sentence is a sentence whose tokens have the same truth values What are best regarded as true and false are not propositions but sentence tokens or sentences if they are eternal Quine 1970 pages 13 14 Theory 1c All and only meaningful declarative sentence token uses are truth bearers Arguments for theory 1c By respecting the use mention distinction Theory 1c avoids criticism ii of Theory 1b Criticisms of theory 1c i Theory 1c does not avoid criticism i of Theory 1b ii meaningful declarative sentence token uses are events located in particular positions in time and space and entail a user This implies that a nothing no truth bearer exists and hence nothing no truth bearer is true or false anytime anywhere b nothing no truth bearer exists and hence nothing no truth bearer is true or false in the absence of a user This implies that a nothing was true before the evolution of users capable of using meaningful declarative sentence tokens and b nothing is true or false except when being used asserted by a user Intuitively the truth or falsity of The tree continues to be in the quad continues in the absence of an agent to asset it Referential Failure A problem of some antiquity is the status of sentences such as U The King of France is bald V The highest prime has no factors W Pegasus did not exist Such sentences purport to refer to entitles which do not exist or do not always exist They are said to suffer from referential failure We are obliged to choose either a That they are not truth bearers and consequently neither true nor false or b That they are truth bearers and per se are either true or false Theory 1d All and only referentially successful meaningful declarative sentence token uses are truth bearers Theory 1d takes option a above by declaring that meaningful declarative sentence token uses that fail referentially are not truth bearers Theory 1e All referentially successful meaningful declarative sentence token uses are truth bearers some meaningful declarative sentence types are truth bearers Arguments for theory 1e Theory 1e has the same advantages as Theory 1d Theory 1e allows for the existence of truth bearers i e meaningful declarative sentence types in the absence of users and between uses If for any x where x is a use of a referentially successful token of a meaningful declarative sentence type y x is a truth bearer then y is a truth bearer otherwise y is not a truth bearer E g If all uses of all referentially successful tokens of the meaningful declarative sentence type The whole is greater than the part are truth bearers i e true or false then the meaningful declarative sentence type The whole is greater than the part is a truth bearer If some but not all uses of some referentially successful tokens of the meaningful declarative sentence type I am Spartacus are true then the meaningful declarative sentence type I am Spartacus is not a truth bearer Criticisms of theory 1e Theory 1e makes implicit use of the concept of an agent or user capable of using i e asserting a referentially successful meaningful declarative sentence token Although Theory 1e does not depend on the actual existence now in the past or in the future of such users it does depend on the possibility and cogency of their existence Consequently the concept of truth bearer under Theory 1e is dependent upon giving an account of the concept of a user In so far as referentially successful meaningful declarative sentence tokens are particulars locatable in time and space the definition of truth bearer just in terms of referentially successful meaningful declarative sentence is attractive to those who are or would like to be nominalists The introduction of use and users threatens the introduction of intentions attitudes minds amp c as less than welcome ontological baggage Sentences in languages of classical logicIn classical logic a sentence in a language is true or false under and only under an interpretation and is therefore a truth bearer For example a language in the first order predicate calculus might include one or more predicate symbols and one or more individual constants and one or more variables The interpretation of such a language would define a domain universe of discourse assign an element of the domain to each individual constant assign the denotation in the domain of some property to each unary one place predicate symbol For example if a language L consisted in the individual constant a two unary predicate letters F and G and the variable x then an interpretation I of L might define the Domain D as animals assign Socrates to a the denotation of the property being a man to F and the denotation of the property being mortal to G Under the interpretation I of L Fa would be true if and only if Socrates is a man and the sentence displaystyle forall x Fx displaystyle to Gx would be true if and only if all men in the domain are mortal In some texts an interpretation is said to give meaning to the symbols of the language Since Fa has the value true under some but not all interpretations it is not the sentence type Fa which is said to be true but only some sentence tokens of Fa under particular interpretations A token of Fa without an interpretation is neither true nor false Some sentences of a language like L are said to be true under all interpretations of the sentence e g displaystyle forall x Fx displaystyle lor displaystyle neg Fx such sentences are termed logical truths but again such sentences are neither true nor false in the absence of an interpretation PropositionsA number of authors use the term proposition as truth bearers There is no single definition or usage Sometimes it is used to mean a meaningful declarative sentence itself sometimes it is used to mean the meaning of a meaningful declarative sentence This provides two possible definitions for the purposes of discussion as below Theory 2a All and only meaningful declarative sentences are propositions Theory 2b A meaningful declarative sentence token expresses a proposition two meaningful declarative sentence tokens which have the same meaning express the same proposition two meaningful declarative sentence tokens with different meanings express different propositions cf Wolfram 1989 p 21 Proposition is not always used in one or other of these ways Criticisms of theory 2a If all and only meaningful declarative sentences are propositions as advanced by Theory 2a then the terms are synonymous and we can just as well speak of the meaningful declarative sentences themselves as the trutbearers there is no distinct concept of proposition to consider and the term proposition is literally redundant Criticisms of Theory 2b Theory 2b entails that if all meaningful declarative sentence tokens typographically identical to say I am Spartacus have the same meaning then they i express the same proposition ii that proposition is both true and false contrary to the definition of truth bearer The concept of a proposition in this theory rests upon the concept of meaning as applied to meaningful declarative sentences in a word synonymy among meaningful declarative sentence s Quine 1970 argues that the concept of synonymy among meaningful declarative sentences cannot be sustained or made clear consequently the concepts of propositions and meanings of sentences are in effect vacuous and superfluousStatementsMany authors consider statements as truth bearers though as with the term proposition there is divergence in definition and usage of that term Sometimes statements are taken to be meaningful declarative sentences sometimes they are thought to be what is asserted by a meaningful declarative sentence It is not always clear in which sense the word is used This provides two possible definitions for the purposes of discussion as below A particular concept of a statement was introduced by Strawson in the 1950s Consider the following I The author of Waverley is dead J The author of Ivanhoe is dead K I am less than six feet tall L I am over six feet tall M The conductor is a bachelor N The conductor is married On the assumption that the same person wrote Waverley and Ivanhoe the two distinct patterns of characters meaningful declarative sentences I and J make the same statement but express different propositions The pairs of meaningful declarative sentences K L amp M N have different meanings but they are not necessarily contradictory since K amp L may have been asserted by different people and M amp N may have been asserted about different conductors What these examples show is that we cannot identify that which is true or false the statement with the sentence used in making it for the same sentence may be used to make different statements some of them true and some of them false Strawson P F 1952 This suggests Two meaningful declarative sentence tokens which say the same thing of the same object s make the same statement Theory 3a All and only statements are meaningful declarative sentences Theory 3b All and only meaningful declarative sentences can be used to make statements Statement is not always used in one or other of these ways Arguments for theory 3a All and only statements are meaningful declarative sentences is either a stipulative definition or a descriptive definition If the former the stipulation is useful or it is not if the latter either the descriptive definition correctly describes English usage or it does not In either case no arguments as such are applicable Criticisms of theory 3a If the term statement is synonymous with the term meaningful declarative sentence then the applicable criticisms are the same as those outlined under sentence below If all and only meaningful declarative sentences are statements as advanced by Theory 3a then the terms are synonymous and we can just as well speak of the meaningful declarative sentences themselves as the truth bearers there is no distinct concept of statement to consider and the term statement is literally redundant ThoughtsFrege 1919 argued that an indicative sentence in which we communicate or state something contains both a thought and an assertion it expresses the thought and the thought is the sense of the sentence See alsoWilliam Kneale Truthmaker Realism Barry SmithNotesCharacter A character is a typographic character printed or written a unit of speech a phoneme a series of dots and dashes as sounds magnetic pulses printed or written a flag or stick held at a certain angle a gesture a sign as use in sign language a pattern or raised indentations as in brail etc in other words the sort of things that are commonly described as the elements of an alphabet Word token A word token is a pattern of characters The pattern of characters A This toucan can catch a can contains six word tokens The pattern of characters D He is grnd contains three word tokens Word type A word type is an identical pattern of characters The pattern of characters A This toucan can catch a can contains five word types the word token can occurring twice Meaningful word token A meaningful word token is a meaningful word token grnd in D He is grnd is not meaningful Word meaning Two word tokens which mean the same are of the same word meaning Only those word tokens which are meaningful word tokens can have the same meaning as another word token The pattern of characters A This toucan can catch a can contains six word meanings Although it contains only five word types the two occurrences of the word token can have different meanings On the assumption that bucket and pail mean the same the pattern of characters B If you have a bucket then you have a pail contains ten word tokens seven word types and six word meanings Sentence token A sentence token is a pattern of word tokens The pattern of characters D He is grnd is a sentence token because grnd is a word token albeit not a meaningful word token Meaningful sentence token A meaningful sentence token is a meaningful sentence token or a meaningful pattern of meaningful word tokens The pattern of characters D He is grnd is not a sentence token because grnd is not a meaningful word token Sentence type Two sentence tokens are of the same sentence type if they are identical patterns of word tokens characters e g the sentence tokens P I m Spartacus and Q I m Spartacus are of the same sentence type Declarative sentence token A declarative sentence token is a sentence token which that can be used to communicate truth or convey information The pattern of characters E Are you happy is not a declarative sentence token because it interrogative not declarative Meaningful declarative sentence tokens A meaningful declarative sentence token is a meaningful declarative sentence token The pattern of characters F Cats blows the wind is not a meaningful declarative sentence token because it is grammatically ill formed The pattern of characters G This stone is thinking about Vienna is not a meaningful declarative sentence token because thinking cannot be predicated of a stone The pattern of characters H This circle is square is not a meaningful declarative sentence token because it is internally inconsistent The pattern of characters D He is grnd is not a meaningful declarative sentence token because it contains a word token grnd which is not a meaningful word token Meaningful declarative sentence types Two meaningful declarative sentence tokens are of the same meaningful declarative sentence type if they are identical patterns of word tokens characters e g the sentence tokens P I m Spartacus and Q I m Spartacus are of the same meaningful declarative sentence type In other words a sentence type is a meaningful declarative sentence type if all tokens of which are meaningful declarative sentence tokens Nonsense declarative sentence token A nonsense declarative sentence token is a declarative sentence token which is not a meaningful declarative sentence token The patterns of characters F Cats blows the wind G This stone is thinking about Vienna and H This circle is square are nonsense declarative sentence tokens because they are declarative sentence tokens but not meaningful declarative sentence tokens The pattern of characters D He is grnd is not a nonsense declarative sentence token because it is not a declarative sentence token because it contains a word token grnd which is not a meaningful word token Meaningful declarative sentence token use A meaningful declarative sentence token use occurs when and only when a meaningful declarative sentence token is used declaratively rather than say mentioned The pattern of characters T Spartacus did not eat all his spinach in London on Feb 11th 2009 is a meaningful declarative sentence token but in all probability it has never been used declaratively and thus there have been no meaningful declarative sentence token uses of T A meaningful declarative sentence token can be used zero to many times Two meaningful declarative sentence tokens uses of the same meaningful declarative sentence type are identical if and only if they are identical events in time and space with identical users Referring expression An expression that can be used to pick out or refer to particular entity such as definite descriptions and proper names Referential success a referring expression s success in identifying a particular entity OR a meaningful declarative sentence token use s containing one or more referring expression all of which succeed in identifying a particular entity Referential failure a referring expression s failure to identify a particular entity is referentially successful OR a meaningful declarative sentence token use s containing one or more referring expression that fail to identify a particular entity Referentially successful meaningful declarative sentence token use A meaningful declarative sentence token use containing no referring expression that fails to identify a particular entity A use of a token of the meaningful declarative sentence type U The King of France is bald is a referentially successful meaningful declarative sentence token use if and only if the embedded referring expression The King of France is referentially successful No use of a token of the meaningful declarative sentence type V The highest prime has no factors other than itself and 1is not a referentially successful meaningful declarative sentence token use since the embedded referring expressionThe highest primeis always a referential failure Meaningful declarative sentence types Two meaningful declarative sentence tokens are of the same meaningful declarative sentence type if they are identical patterns of word tokens characters e g the sentence tokens P and Q above are of the same meaningful declarative sentence type In other words a sentence type is a meaningful declarative sentence type if its tokens of are meaningful declarative sentence tokens Utterance The term utterance is frequently used to mean meaningful declarative sentence token See e g Grice Meaning 1957 http semantics uchicago edu kennedy classes f09 semprag1 grice57 pdf Eternal Sentence A sentence that stays forever true or forever false independently of any special circumstances under which they happen to be uttered or written More exactly a meaningful declarative sentence type whose tokens have the same truth values E g The whole is greater than the part is an eternal sentence It is raining is not an eternal sentence but It rains in Boston Mass on July 15 1968 is an eternal sentenceReferencese g In symbolic logic a statement also called a proposition is a complete declarative sentence which is either true or false Vignette 17 Logic Truth and Language A statement is just that it is a declaration about something anything a declaration which can be evaluated as either true or false I am reading this sentence is a statement and if indeed you have looked at it and comprehended its meaning then it is safe to say that that statement can be evaluated as true Fundamental Logic Concepts Statement Archived 2008 05 22 at the Wayback Machine e g Some philosophers claim that declarative sentences of natural language have underlying logical forms and that these forms are displayed by formulas of a formal language Other writers hold that successful declarative sentences express propositions and formulas of formal languages somehow display the forms of these propositions Shapiro Stewart 2008 Classical Logic In Edward N Zalta ed Classical Logic in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Fall 2008 ed Metaphysics Research Lab Stanford University Wolfram Sybil 1989 Philosophical Logic Routledge London and New York ISBN 0 415 02317 3 Occurrences of numerals Fisher 2008 Philosophy of Logic Cengage Learning ISBN 978 0 495 00888 0 Kneale W amp M 1962 The development of logic Oxford ISBN 0 19 824183 6 page 593 see Wolfram Sybil 1989 generally on the application of type token distinction Quine W V 1970 Philosophy of Logic Prentice Hall ISBN 0 13 663625 X QUINE W V 1970 Philosophy of Logic Prentice Hall ISBN 0 13 663625 X See also First order logic Semantics e g Russell Wittgenstein and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy URL http plato stanford edu entries facts FacPro By proposition we shall mean truth bearer and remain neutral as to whether truth bearers are sentences statements beliefs or abstract objects expressed by sentences for instance except in section 2 4 1 McGrath Matthew Propositions The Stanford Fall 2008 Edition Edward N Zalta ed URL lt http plato stanford edu archives fall2008 entries propositions gt The term proposition has a broad use in contemporary philosophy It is used to refer to some or all of the following the primary bearers of truth value the objects of belief and other propositional attitudes i e what is believed doubted etc the referents of that clauses and the meanings of sentences Mark Richard 2006 Propositions On one use of the term propositions are objects of assertion what successful uses of declarative sentences say As such they determine truth values and truth conditions On a second they are the objects of certain psychological states such as belief and wonder ascribed with verbs that take sentential complements such as believe and wonder On a third use they are what are or could be named by the complements of such verbs Many assume that propositions in one sense are propositions in the others Philosopher s tolerance towards propositions has been encouraged partly by ambiguity in the term proposition The term often is used simply for the sentences themselves declarative sentences and then some writers who do use the term for meanings of sentences are careless about the distinction between sentences and their meanings Quine 1970 p 2 Wolfram Sybil 1989 Philosophical Logic Routledge i e when expressed by a token meaningful declarative sentence made by Spartacus and when expressed by somebody other than Spartacus Philosophers who favor propositions have said that propositions are needed because truth only of propositions not of sentences read meaningful declarative sentences Ed is intelligible An unsympathetic answer is that we can explain truth of sentences to be propositional in their own terms sentences are true whose meanings are true propositions Any failure of intelligibility here is already his own fault Quine 1970 page 10 See also Willard Van Orman Quine Proposition The Russell Myhill Antinomy also known as the Principles of Mathematics Appendix B Paradox 1 See also Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Propositions are abstract entities they do not exist in space and time They are sometimes said to be timeless eternal or omnitemporal entities Terminology aside the essential point is that propositions are not concrete or material objects Nor for that matter are they mental entities they are not thoughts as Frege had suggested in the nineteenth century The theory that propositions are the bearers of truth values also has been criticized Nominalists object to the abstract character of propositions Another complaint is that it s not sufficiently clear when we have a case of the same propositions as opposed to similar propositions This is much like the complaint that we can t determine when two sentences have exactly the same meaning The relationship between sentences and propositions is a serious philosophical problem Strawson PF 1950 On referring Mind 9 reprinted in Strawson 1971 and elsewhere Strawson PF 1957 Propositions Concepts and Logical Truths The Philosophical Quarterly 7 26 15 25 doi 10 2307 2216343 JSTOR 2216343 reprinted in Strawson PF 1971 Logico Linguistic Papers Methuen ISBN 0 416 09010 9 Strawson P F 1952 Introduction to Logical Theory Methuen London p 4 ISBN 0 416 68220 0 Frege G 1919 Die Gedanke trans AM and Marcelle Quinton in Frege G 1956 The thought A logical Enquiry Mind 65 289 311 doi 10 1093 mind 65 1 289 reprinted in Strawson 1967 External linksStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Truth 2 1 Sentences as truth bearers Glanzberg Michael The Correspondence Theory of Truth 2 Truthbearers and Truthmakers David Marian