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WHAT IS THE CORRESPONDENCE THEORY?
Veritas est adaequaito rei et intellectus
THURSDAY, JULY 7 2016
There is a problem about what a fact is anyway. How can a fact be identified or discussed without referring to the proposition that is meant to be the conditions for it being true?
It assumes that there is an external world. i.e, a particular metaphysical position and seems to beg the question of: how can we ever get outside our sensory experiences to know what the facts are?
The Correspondence Theory States that the truth or falsity of a statement is determind by its relationship to the part of the world described by the statement.
Finally, the theory is based on the concept of “correspondence”. But it is objected by critics, what does it really mean? What is the nature of correspondence?
The correspondence theory goes way back to Aristotle’s well-known definition of truth but virtually identical formulations can be found in Plato.
The Correspondence theory specifies that truth is an agreement between a proposition and a fact. Thus, the theory assumes the existence of an external, material world which is composed of facts.
But neither of these can be the kind of correspondence that is being asserted when we say a statement in a language corresponds to a state of affairs in the world.
To say that that which is, is not and that which is not is, is a falsehood; therefore to say, that which is, is and that which is not is not, is true.
This version is presented by Thomas Aquinas
Traditional versions of object based theories assumed that the truth bearing items (usually taken to be judgements) have subject predicate structure.
(Truth is the equation of thing and intellect) or which he restates as: "A judgement is said to be true when it conforms to external reality."
Fact based versions was foreshadowed by Hume and Mill. It appears in its cannonical form in Moore and Russell: “Thus a belief is true when there is a corresponding fact, and is false when there is no corresponding fact.”
Aquinas’ formula “equation of thing and intellect” can be applied not only to thoughts and judgements but also to things or persons. He explains that a thought is said to be true because it conforms to reality, whereas a thing or person is said to be true because it conforms to a thought.