1783. To claim that a belief is true is to claim . . .

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To claim that a belief is true is to claim, indirectly if not directly, that:

(1) the belief agrees with things as they really are, in their structure in themselves, independently of our beliefs about them;

(2) the belief cannot fail to agree in substance with any other true belief of the same logical type about the same subject; and

(3) the reasons, finally, why this belief or any other belief is to be accepted as true are to be found somehow in the same common human experience and critical reflection that provide the reasons, finally, for accepting (or rejecting) any of our beliefs.

(I allow for the qualification, "indirectly, if not directly," because existential beliefs, being directly about the meaning of things for us, are only indirectly about the structure of things in themselves.)

4 August 1997