Deck 6: Truth

Question 1

Who argued that the truth of an idea depends on the practical difference it makes?

A) Hume
B) Locke
C) James
D) Russell

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following logician and philosopher argues that truth is a property of sentences?

A) Alvin Goldman
B) C. I. Lewis
C) Alfred Tarski
D) John Searle

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Who said that we were out to "trap" nature?

A) Putnam
B) Descartes
C) Quine
D) James

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What philosopher wrote the following: "The language and the history of the time the writer was living in is the context within which individual texts have to be interpreted."?

A) Friedrich Nietzsche
B) Thomas Aquinas
C) Hermes
D) Friedrich Schleiermacher

Question 5

How many kinds of particles and forces are recognized in the standard theory of matter?

A) Three kinds of particles, four kinds of forces
B) Four kinds of forces, three kinds of particles
C) Three kinds of particles, three kinds of forces
D) Four kinds of forces, four kinds of forces

Question 6

What philosopher argued that we should strive to develop a perfect language in which we could express our ideas with complete clarity?

A) Thomas Aquinas
B) Gottfried Leibniz
C) Wilhelm Dilthey
D) Friedrich Schleiermacher

Question 7

Vatsyayana accepted which view of truth?

A) Rationalism
B) Foundationalism
C) Correspondence
D) Pragmatism

Question 8

Which of the following philosophers accepted the coherence theory of truth?

A) Dharmakirti
B) Vatsyayana
C) John Dewey
D) Charles S. Peirce

Question 9

Who believed that the attempt to find one characterization of truth that covers every kind of truth was doomed to fail?

A) Putnam
B) Descartes
C) Quine
D) James

Question 10

According to the ____ theory of truth a statement is true if it is useful to believe.

A) pragmatic
B) coherence
C) foundationalist
D) correspondence

Question 11

Bertrand Russell developed a

A) Foundational theory
B) Pragmatic theory
C) Correspondence theory
D) Skeptical theory

Question 12

Which of the following philosophers proposed a version of the correspondence theory of truth?

A) Rudolf Carnap
B) Clarence I. Lewis
C) Bertrand Russell
D) George Bishop Berkeley

Question 13

What contemporary philosopher argues that truth is whatever has passed society's "procedures of justification"?

A) Richard Rorty
B) Bertrand Russell
C) John Locke
D) Alfred Tarski

Question 14

What philosopher wrote: "A text is understood only if it is understood in a different way every time."?

A) Hans-Georg Gadamer
B) Ludwig Wittgenstein
C) David Hume
D) Immanuel Kant

Question 15

What philosopher wrote: "The world is the totallity of facts,not of things."?

A) Thomas Aquinas
B) Hans-Georg Gadamer
C) Ludwig Wittgenstein
D) Wilhelm Dilthey

Question 16

Wilfred Sellars argued that

A) There were no basic beliefs
B) That our basic beliefs are foundational
C) That knowledge is impossible
D) That knowledge is culturally relative

Question 17

Gettier examples assume

A) That people are justified in believing things when they rely on their past experiences
B) That justified true belief constitutes knowledge
C) That people are justified in believing things when they rely on others' testimony
D) That people can only rely on their senses for knowledge

Question 18

According to the ____ view of scientific truth,scientific theories are literally true or false.

A) pragamatist
B) relativist
C) realist
D) instrumentalist

Question 19

John Searle believes that all true propositions are those

A) That correspond to mental states
B) That correspond to facts
C) That have a certain intellectual pedigree
D) That rest on foundational beliefs

Question 20

According to the ____ theory of truth,a belief is true if it is,or can be,integrated within the framework of all the other beliefs that we already accept as true.

A) pragmatic
B) foundationalist
C) coherence
D) correspondence

Question 21

____________________ hold that truth adds nothing to our statements.

Question 22

C.G.Hempel rejected the coherentist view of truth.

Question 23

Searle argues that the word ____________________ was developed so that we could talk about what it is about the real world that makes a proposition true.

Question 24

According to the ____________________ theory of truth a belief is true if it coheres with other beliefs that we regard as true.

Question 25

The realist view of scientific truth is a version of the ____________________ theory of truth.

Question 26

The three theories of truth assume that truth is a(n)____________________ concept.

Question 27

Statements or sentences express the contents of our ____________________.

Question 28

A(n)____________________ belief is one that we immediately know is true without having to infer it from other belief.

Question 29

Rorty is a pragmatist about truth.

Question 30

The view that truth is an agreement between a proposition and some facts in the world is the ____________________ theory of truth.

Question 31

A basic belief is one that does not need to be justified by other beliefs.

Question 32

Bertrand Russell endorsed the ____________________ theory of truth.

Question 33

There are only two major theories of truth.

Question 34

No Eastern philosophers accept the pragmatic view of truth.

Question 35

Propositions that we cannot know unless we observe the world are called empirical,or ____________________ propositions.

Question 36

Austin held that we could use a language to talk with each other even if there were no rules governing its use.

Question 37

Wilfrid Sellers believed that there were basic beliefs.

Question 38

Dharmakirti accepted a foundationalist view of truth.

Question 39

A priori propositions are propositions that we can know to be true without having to observe the world.

Question 40

Martin Luther believed that there was only one true meaning of scripture.

Question 41

Do you think that the pragmatic theory of truth is a theory of truth in the same way as the correspondence and coherence theories are theories of truth? Argue for your view.

Question 42

Do you believe that knowledge is justified true belief? Why,or why not? In answering this question you should draw on the work of both Gettier and Plato.

Question 43

Is it possible to give a literal reading of a text,untouched by interpretation? Justify your answer,and apply it to at least one practical issues,such as (a)whether judges "make law" in applying it,or (b)whether religious fundamentalism is internally coherent.

Question 44

Outline the two ways in which God and right acts might be related,according to the Euthyphro dialogue discussed in Chapter 1.If we believe that acts are right because God loves them,how do we know which acts are right acts? How might the problem of interpretation be relevant to the most obvious answer to this question?

Question 45

Assume that Berkeley's idealism is correct.Which theory of truth would best fit with such a universe (a)if God did not exist,(b)if God did exist,and had the properties that Berkeley ascribed to Him? Explain your answer fully.