UNDERGRADUATE SEMINAR IN PHILOSOPHY:
THEORIES OF TRUTH

PHIL 402, Sec. 003: W 2pm-4pm in 1164 Angell Hall
The University of Michigan
Winter 2005




Instructor: James Woodbridge
email address: jwood@umich.edu
Course Webpage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jwood/umich/Phil402.htm
Office Hours: T 2pm-3:30pm, W 1pm-2pm, and by appointment
Office: 2200 Angell Hall
Office Phone: 615-6537
Dept. Phone: 764-6285


SECOND PAPER INSTALLMENT

Expand your First Installment in the manner described below to produce an 8-10 page paper.

Your paper is due in the dropbox by 3pm on Monday, April 4th.


The aim for this installment is to incorporate discussion of epistemic theories of truth into your paper. The result will thus be a paper examining and critiquing different versions of inflationism about truth, that is, the general view that truth is a substantive property/relation of some sort, with an underlying nature admitting of illuminating philosophical analysis. You already have material on the correspondence theory. After a new introduction (1 page) reflecting the broader scope of this Installment (and making explicit a thesis you will argue for in the paper), reorganize this older material (and rewrite it in light of my comments to improve both writing and content) so that it focuses on the definitive characteristics of a correspondence theory (in terms of the three aspects--truth bearers, truth makers, and the truth relation--perhaps contrasting different versions--about 1.5 pages) and then presents and explains what you take to be the best version of this approach, and why you think this (1.5 pages). After this, explain what you take to be the most serious challenges confrotning a correspondence theory (perhaps, in particular, the version you think is best--1 page). Next, go into more detail regarding epistemic theories of truth, explaining what is definitive of them (perhaps, again, in terms of the three aspects of an account of truth, contrasting different versions--about 1.5 pages). After this, present and explain what you think is the best version of an epistemic account of truth, and why you think this (1.5 pages), then discuss what you take to be the most serious objections to epistemic accounts (in particular, the one you think is best--1 page). Finally, having considered both correspondence and epistemic accounts, decide which of these two kinds of view you think is better and give reasons (including each approach's potential for dealing with the challenges it faces, and a comparative assessment of the challenges confronting each) for favoring this approach over the other (about 1 page).


Be sure to review my Paper Requirements and Policies.

Keep your paper within the page limit!