What if all truth is context-dependent?
CPM Report No.: 01-77
By: Bruce Edmonds
Date: 12th February 2001
Abstract
This paper argues that truth is by nature context-dependent
– that no truth can be applied regardless of context. I call this “strong
contextualism”. Some objections to this are considered and rejected, principally:
that there are universal truths given to us by physics, logic and mathematics;
and that claiming “no truths are universal” is self-defeating. Two “models”
of truth are suggested to indicate` that strong contextualism is coherent.
It is suggested that some of the utility of the “universal framework” can
be recovered via a more limited “third person viewpoint”.
Keywords: philosophy, universality, context, truth,
knowledge
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