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Line 2: − When considering truth, certain difficulties arise. For example, one person might consider certain facts and values to be the truth, based on what they see and hear, but these same facts might be considered or indeed known to be [[false]] by others. Other problems include the concept of "Absolute Truth", insofar as people will naturally disagree as to what truths are absolute. [http://www.christianity.co.nz/truth1.htm]+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
→Difficulties: Tarski's theory of truth
== Difficulties ==
== Difficulties ==
What is meant by "the facts"? Often the term "fact" is thought to mean "something that is true". If truth is then defined as correspondence to the facts the whole descends into cirularity. This gives rise to the "paradoxes of truth" such as:
<blockquote>
This sentence is false
</blockquote>
Alfred Tarski, in attempting to formulate a conception of truth that avoided these paradoxes, formulated a way of seperating the concept of truth from "the facts" it was to represent. His ''Semantic Theory of Truth'' held that truth was part of a meta-language, a language that talks about basic languages. The basic languages, known as "object languages" describe, or purport to decribe, the state of the world. The meta-language then descibes whether or not the basic language has succeeded. [[Karl Popper]] recommended thinking of the languages in terms of two different natural languages. <ref>Popper, K.R. ''The Open Society and It's Enemies, Vol 2.'' Routledge. London. 1966. p 369-396</ref>. Take, for example, French as the basic language and the statement:
<blockquote>
'''Object language statement''': La niege est blanc
</blockquote>
This makes a statement about the world. A good many statements may be made about this statement (meta statements), one of which would be whether it is true or not. Reverting to English we may say:
<blockquote>
'''Meta-language statement:''' "La niege est blanc" is true if, and only if, the snow is white
</blockquote>
It can be readily seen that the English statement above is not a statement about the world, but a statement about the French phrase. It is a meta-statement and is true or false depending on the meaning of the French phrase rather than the state of the world. The English phrase would be true even if snow where turquoise.
== Truth as a Value ==
== Truth as a Value ==