aristotle on truth

354 Pages·2004·1.66 MB·English

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ARISTOTLE ON TRUTH
Aristotle’stheoryoftruth,whichhasbeenthemostinfluentialaccount
of the concept of truth from Antiquity onwards, spans several areas
of philosophy: philosophy of language, logic, ontology, and episte-
mology.Inthisbook,thefirstdedicatedtothistopic,PaoloCrivelli
discussesallthemainaspectsofAristotle’sviewsontruthandfalse-
hood.Heanalysesindetailthemainrelevantpassages,addressessome
well-knownproblemsofAristoteliansemantics,andassessesAristotle’s
theoryfromthepointofviewofmodernanalyticphilosophy.Inthe
process he discusses most of the literature on Aristotle’s semantic
theory to have appeared in the last two centuries. His book vindi-
catesandclarifiestheoftenrepeatedclaimthatAristotle’sisacorre-
spondence theory of truth. It will be of interest to a wide range of
readersworkinginbothancientphilosophyandmodernphilosophy
oflanguage.
paolo crivelli is Fellow and Tutor in Classical Philosophy at
NewCollege,Oxford.HehaspublishedarticlesonPlato’slogicand
epistemology,Aristotle’sphilosophicallogic,andStoiclogic.

ARISTOTLE ON TRUTH
PAOLO CRIVELLI
UniversityofOxford
cambridge university press
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Cambridge University Press
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
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© Paolo Crivelli 2004
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2004
isbn-13 978-0-511-23002-8 eBook (EBL)
isbn-10 0-511-23002-8
eBook (EBL)
isbn-13 978-0-521-82328-9 hardback
isbn-10 0-521-82328-5 hardback
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for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Tothememoryofmyfather
RenzoCrivelli
andtomymother
KatherineLesterCrivelli

Contents
Acknowledgements pageix
Notesonthetext x
ListofabbreviationsoftitlesofAristotle’sworks xi
Introduction 1
1 AnoverviewofAristotle’stheoryoftruth 1
2 Methodology 39
part i bearers of truth or falsehood
1 Statesofaffairs,thoughts,andsentences 45
1 Statesofaffairs 46
2 Thoughts 62
3 Sentences 72
2 Truthconditionsforpredicativeassertions 77
1 Universals 78
2 Truth and falsehood in de Interpretatione 1 82
3 Affirmativeandnegativepredicativeassertions 86
4 Assertionsaboutindividualsvsassertionsaboutuniversals 89
5 Truthandthecategories 95
3 Truthconditionsforexistentialassertions 99
1 Existentialassertionsconcerningsimpleitems 100
2 Non-compositesubstances 116
3 Singularexistentialassertionsconcerningmaterialsubstances 121
part ii ‘empty’ terms
4 Truthascorrespondence 129
1 Acorrespondencetheoryoftruth? 129
2 TheLiar 139
vii
viii Contents
5 ‘Vacuous’termsand‘empty’terms 152
1 ‘Vacuous’subjectsorpredicates 153
2 ‘Empty’subjectsorpredicates 158
3 Oneassertionvsmanyassertions 163
part iii truth and time
6 Truthandchange 183
1 Differenttruth-valuesatdifferenttimes 183
2 Truthandrelatives 189
3 Howfaristruthfromchange? 194
7 TruthandDeterminismindeInterpretatione9 198
1 ThemodalattributesandthesesinvolvedinInt.9 199
2 ClosetextualanalysisofInt.9 200
3 Alternativeinterpretations 226
Appendix1 Metaph.(cid:2)10,1051b1:thetext 234
Appendix2 Metaph.(cid:2)10,1051b2–3:thetext 238
Appendix3 Int.7,17b16–18:thetext 239
Appendix4 Thetwo-placerelationsinAristotle’s
definitionoftruth 254
Appendix5 Aristotle’stheoryoftruthforpredicative
assertions:formalpresentation 258
Appendix6 ThefailureofBivalenceforfuture-tense
assertions:formalpresentation 266
References 284
Indexofnames 313
Indexofsubjects 319
Indexofpassages 321