Tarski, Quine, and the transcendence of the vernacular "true"

Jody Azzouni

pp. 273-288

in: Synthese 142 (3), 2005.

Abstract

It is argued that the blind ascriptive role for the word “true”, its use, that is, in conjunction with descriptions of classes of sentences or with proper names of sentences (but not quote-names), is one which applies indiscriminately to sentences regardless of whether these are in languages we speak, can understand, or can translate into sentences that we do speak (and understand). Formal analogues of the ordinary word “true” as they arise in Tarski’s seminal work, and in others, cannot replicate this essential role of the ordinary word “true”.

Cited authors

Quine Willard Van Orman

Tarski Alfred