The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden

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How does one determine the criterion of truth for a given type of belief? One determines the criterion by:

(1) determining the kind of question to which beliefs of that type are possible answers; and

(2) analyzing (or explicating) what this kind of question necessarily presupposes.

By thus explicating the presuppositions of the kind of question, one discovers the relevant criterion of truth for beliefs of the given type. (Alternatively, one discovers the standards of credibility for assessing beliefs purporting  to answer that kind of question.)

Thus, for example, the criterion of the truth of a religious belief is whether, or how adequately, it represents the true answer to the existential question about the meaning of ultimate reality for us. The criterion of the truth of a metaphysical belief, on the other hand, is whether, or how adequately, it represents the true answer to the intellectual question about the structure of ultimate reality in itself. Similarly, the criterion of the truth of an ethical question is whether, or how adequately, it represents the true answer to the intellectual question about the structure of the meaning of ultimate reality for us.

9 August 2006

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