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.d e vre se r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisre vin U d ra vra H .4 9 9 1 © th g iryp o C Wright, Crispin, and Crispin WRIGHT. Truth and Objectivity, Harvard University Press, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300331. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-10-22 20:54:31. Truth and Objectivity .d e vre se r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisre vin U d ra vra H .4 9 9 1 © th g iryp o C Wright, Crispin, and Crispin WRIGHT. Truth and Objectivity, Harvard University Press, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300331. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-10-22 20:54:31. .d e vre se r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisre vin U d ra vra H .4 9 9 1 © th g iryp o C Wright, Crispin, and Crispin WRIGHT. Truth and Objectivity, Harvard University Press, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300331. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-10-22 20:54:31. Truth and Objectivity ~------- Crispin Wright .d e vre se r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisrevin CHamarbvrairddgeU,nMivaesrssaictyhuPsreetstss U d London, England ra vra H .4 9 9 1 © th g iryp o C Wright, Crispin, and Crispin WRIGHT. Truth and Objectivity, Harvard University Press, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300331. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-10-22 20:54:31. Copyright © 1992 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States ofAmerica Second Printing, 1994 First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 1994 Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wright, Crispin, 1942- Truth and objectivity / Crispin Wright. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-674-91086-9 (cloth) ISBN 0-674-91087-7 (pbk.) I. Realism. I. Title. B835·W75 1992 121-dc20 .d e vre se r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisre vin U d ra vra H .4 9 9 1 © th g iryp o C Wright, Crispin, and Crispin WRIGHT. Truth and Objectivity, Harvard University Press, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300331. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-10-22 20:54:31. For Geoffrey and Arthur: the Wright Brothers .d e vre se r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisre vin U d ra vra H .4 9 9 1 © th g iryp o C Wright, Crispin, and Crispin WRIGHT. Truth and Objectivity, Harvard University Press, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300331. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-10-22 20:54:31. .d e vre se r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisre vin U d ra vra H .4 9 9 1 © th g iryp o C Wright, Crispin, and Crispin WRIGHT. Truth and Objectivity, Harvard University Press, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300331. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-10-22 20:54:31. Preface During the academic sessions 1990-91 and 1991-92, I had the good fortune to hold a British Academy Research Readership and thus at least to make a start on a project which, in my original application to the Academy, I had confidently undertaken to com plete within the period of the Readership if my application was successful. That project was to bring into more explicit focus a new framework for conducting the philosophical debates about realism-a framework which I had been developing in a number ofpapers published in recent years-and then to apply it in detail to various specific realist/anti-realist debates, especially those con cerning logical necessity, the status of scientific theories, moral judgement, and secondary qualities. My election to a Visiting Fel lowship at Magdalen College for the Trinity term of 1991 gave me .d an invaluable opportunity, as Waynflete Lecturer, to air some of e vrese the material which I planned to include in the book in which the r sth project was to culminate. Naturally enough, the lectures were g ir llA mainly concerned with elaborating the general framework, rather .sse than with its applications. But at their conclusion, it seemed to rP ytisre mjuest,ifays sIelpoaorkaetedpouvberliwcahtiaotnI.hTahdisprsehsoernttebdo,otkhaist tthhee mreastuelrti.al might vin U d Several considerations invited the decision topublish it. Onewas ra vra that it was now clear that a proper execution of the original H .4 9 9 1 © th VII g iryp o C Wright, Crispin, and Crispin WRIGHT. Truth and Objectivity, Harvard University Press, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300331. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-10-22 20:54:31. VIII Preface project would demand a very big book, at whose likely completion date I could not so much as hazard a guess. Publishing very big books in philosophy nowadays is, I suspect, almost as good a way of ensuring that most of their content will never be read as not publishing it at all. Second, it seemed to me that the main con tours of the general perspective outlined here may well stand out more sharply in a short exposition than they would in the much larger effort needed to apply them in detail to a variety ofdifferent areas ofdiscourse. Ifthere is any merit in these ideas, then, despite all the loose ends and lacunae which I have been forced to leave in place, others will, I think, be able to judge so more easily on the basis ofa concise presentation, and may wish to pursue the applica tion of the framework to the local debates on their own account. That at any rate is my hope; philosophical research, especially on issues as fundamental and difficult as these, ought to be collabora tive, even under the econometric ethos which now conditions the thinking of university administrators and pressures professional philosophers on both sides ofthe Atlantic. A further consideration was that some of the material in the lectures involved extended criticism of recently published work of writers such as Paul Boghossian and David Wiggins; this material would date if its publication were long delayed. Finally, my hosts at Magdalen left me, in the nicest possible way, in no doubt that publication ofthe lectures would be very welcome from their point ofview. Publishing lectures necessitates choosing how far to rejig the material in accordance with the needs of written rather than oral presentation. The text which follows is mostly close to that ofthe lectures as originally delivered. In particular, I have left in place a .d somewhat larger number of passages of summary than is, I sup e vrese pose, now strictly necessary. These passages usually constitute the r sth initial section of a chapter, and less patient, more experienced g ir llA readers might try skipping or skimming them. That is a suggested .sse experiment, however, rather than a recommendation. I would not rP ytisre hreaavdeerrse,tathineeydarteh,eonsubmamlanarciee,smiofreI ldikidelynotot hjuedlpgeprothcaete,difnogrsmthoasnt vin U d to put a brake on them. ra vra Thereare, however, anumberofsignificantadditionsandchanges. H .4 9 9 1 © th g iryp o C Wright, Crispin, and Crispin WRIGHT. Truth and Objectivity, Harvard University Press, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300331. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-10-22 20:54:31. Preface IX I have usually added briefdiscussion notes after a chapter, taking up some of the matters which either arose during the question period or which I had earlier edited out for reasons of time. But the "lacunae and loose ends" are mostly still very much in evi dence. They include especially a host ofquestions concerning truth and superassertibility unbroached in Chapter 2-which is nevertheless the most reworked-and the major difficulty con cerning Cognitive Command and the theoreticity of observation on which Chapter 4 concludes. Worst of all in the original text was the imbalance of a discussion in which the cruces concerning Cognitive Command and Width of Cosmological Role were explored in some detail, while those concerning Evidence Tran scendence and the Euthyphro Contrast received hardly any atten tion. It's true, of course, that I have already had plenty to say about Evidence Transcendence and the Dummettian conception of the realist/anti-realist debate in other places. But there is almost no worthwhile published discussion, by me or anyone else, ofhow best to understand the Euthyphro Contrast or ofits significance for the modern debate about realism. I originally planned to say a lot more about it in the lectures, and some of this material now appears as the appendix to Chapter 3. Its inclusion rounds out the description ofthe general framework in a way which I believe will be helpful. I am extremely grateful to Magdalen for so congenial an opportu nity to live and work in Oxford again after an absence ofthirteen years. Notwithstanding the difficulties which universities in Britain and perhaps especially its academic philosophers have had .d to contend with over the last decade, philosophy at Oxford remains e vrese hearteningly vigorous, powerful and open-minded. The discussion r sth periods after each lecture were unfailingly constructive and helpful, g ir llA and I also learned much from informal discussions with and from .sse the written comments of many of those who attended. I would rP ytisre lBiklaecktobuerxnp,rJeussstimnyBrsopaecckiaels,gMraitcithuadeel Dinumthmisectto,nEnleicztaiboenthtoFrSicimkeorn, vin U d Dick Hare, John McDowell, Christopher Peacocke, Mark Sacks, ra vra Richard Swinburne, Roger Teichman, Ralph Walker and Timothy H .4 9 9 1 © th g iryp o C Wright, Crispin, and Crispin WRIGHT. Truth and Objectivity, Harvard University Press, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300331. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-10-22 20:54:31.