Correspondence and Disquotation An Essay on

Marian David defends the correspondence theory of truth against the disquotational theory of truth, its current major rival. The correspondence theory asserts that truth is a philosophically rich and profound notion in need of serious explanation. Disquotationalists offer a radically deflationary account inspired by Tarski and propagated by Quine and others. They reject the correspondence theory, insist truth is anemic, and advance an "anti-theory" of truth that is essentially a collection of platitudes: "Snow is white" is true if and only if snow is white; "Grass is green" is true if and only if grass is green. According to disquotationalists the only profound insight about truth is that it lacks profundity. David contrasts the correspondence theory with disquotationalism and then develops the latter position in rich detail--more than has been available in previous literature--to show its faults. He demonstrates that disquotationalism is not a tenable theory of truth, as it has too many absurd consequences.

Marian David is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.

Introduction	p. 3
Substantive Truth and Deflationary Truth	p. 3
Correspondence and Disquotation	p. 5
The Theory of Truth	p. 7
The Structure of a Theory of Truth	p. 10
Sentences as Truth Bearers	p. 13
Correspondence	p. 17
Corresponding to Facts	p. 17
Falsehood and Content	p. 25
Representing States of Affairs That Obtain	p. 31
Some Refinements	p. 40
Expressing True Propositions	p. 45
A General Correspondence Theory of Truth	p. 49
Motivations for Deflationism	p. 52
Some Basic Motivations	p. 52
A Systematic Motivation: Eliminative Physicalism	p. 55
Disquotation	p. 61
Toward Disquotationalism: Simple Disquotation	p. 61
An Objection to Simple Disquotation	p. 70
Disquotationalism	p. 73
Disquotation and Substitutional Quantification	p. 78
Disquotation and Infinite Lists	p. 93
Varieties of Deflationism	p. 104
Problems for Disquotationalism	p. 107
Problem One: Finite Statability	p. 107
Recursive Disquotation	p. 110
Recursive Correspondence and Recursive Disquotation	p. 119
Problem Two: Ideological Autonomy	p. 124
Problem Three: Necessity and Subjunctives	p. 130
Problem Four: Foreigners and Isolationism	p. 135
Indexing Truth	p. 139
Problem Five: Falsehood, Declaratives, Ambiguity, and Indexicals	p. 148
Problem Six: Specifying Idiolects	p. 158
Mental Disquotation	p. 166
Translational Disquotationalism	p. 177
Embrace Disquotationalism?	p. 187
The Disquotational Liar	p. 189
References	p. 193
Index	p. 199
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Correspondence and Disquotation An Essay on the Nature of Truth

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