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Mar 1993
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ISBN
0262071444
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| 313 pp.
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| 9 illus.
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| The Revision Theory of Truth |
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Anil Gupta
and
Nuel Belnap
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"Arguing that there is nothing wrong with circular definitions, Gupta
and Belnap challenge an orthodoxy that has been virtually unbroken
since Aristotle. They develop a general theory of circular
definitions that is both elegant and mathematically
sophisticated."
-- Van McGee, Associate Professor, Department of
Philosophy, Rutgers University
"Long awaited by researchers in logic and formal semantics, this
highly significant book is original, provocative, well thought out,
and technically accomplished
-- Stephen Yablow, Department of Philosophy,
University of Toronto
In this rigorous investigation into the logic of truth Anil Gupta and
Nuel Belnap explain how the concept of truth works in both ordinary
and pathological contexts. The latter include, for instance, contexts
that generate Liar Paradox. Their central claim is that truth is a
circular concept. In support of this claim they provide a widely
applicable theory (the "revision theory") of circular concepts. Under
the revision theory, when truth is seen as circular both its ordinary
features and its pathological features fall into a simple
understandable pattern.
The Revision Theory of Truth is unique in placing truth
in the context of a general theory of definitions. This theory makes
sense of arbitrary systems of mutually interdependent concepts, of
which circular concepts, such as truth, are but a special case.
Anil Gupta is Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University. Nuel
Belnap is Alan Ross Anderson Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at
the University of Pittsburgh.
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