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A Critique Of Wiredu’s Concept Of Truth
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 7]
Page 7 of 7
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That which guides truly is true…
“the
hypothesis that works is the true one and truth is an abstract applied
to the collection of cases, actual, foreseen, and desired, that
receive confirmation in their consequencysâ€.31
Consequences fore the pragmatists, then go into the very essence of meaning and truth.
In this “Essay in experimental logicâ€, Dewey suggests, that the term
pragmatic only mean the rule of all thinking all reflective
consideration to “Consequences:†for final meaning and text.
In brief formulation the pragmatist approach to truth can be stated
thus: A thought is true, not because it agrees with some experimental
reality as most traditionalists hold, but because it works all right.
That is, it has valid consequences it is applied to some specific
situations. It is false not because it misrepresents reality, bust
because when it is used it fails to work out right. Truth, then consist
in the usefulness of an idea in practice. And a preposition is verified
or falsified by proving usable or non-usable in action.
By
way of general critique of pragmatism it is true, as Bernard Russell
and Arthur Lukejor, among others, point out that the notion of truth as
what work is unclear since the concept of “Workability†is ambiguous. A
brief cans work in two different senses at the same time. Also in
stating that the only common characteristics of all our true beliefs are
that they “payâ€. Williams seems to suggest that the consequences of
entertaining such belief are better than those of rejecting them.
But also Russell point out, it is enormously difficult to know a priori
the consequences of holding any belief. How are we to determine, for
instance weather the effects of believing in Islamic religion are on the
whole good or bad?
Also common to all pragmatic is the
view that nothing should be considered true, except that which is
experienciable and emperically verifiable. However, it is also true
that to say, for instance that S is P becomes true does not mean that S
is P become verified. It can only mean that S become P.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 7]
Page 7 of 7
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