Pragmatic Truth • 3
Truth Predicates
An inquiry into the character of truth generally begins with the idea of an informative, meaningful, or significant element, the goodness of whose information, meaning, or significance may be put in question and needs to be evaluated.
Depending on context, the element at hand may be called an ad, address, advertisement, alias, artefact, article, badge, ballot, bit, blank, blip, book, brochure, bulletin, byte, certificate, chapter, character, clause, code, colophon, command, constant, dance, dash, datum, design, diagram, digit, discussion, dissertation, document, dot, drawing, emblem, emoji, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epitext, epithet, essay, expression, fable, facsimile, figure, file, film, flag, fugue, gesture, glyph, graph, graphic, guarantee, guess, hieroglyphic, hologram, holotext, hypothesis, icon, identifier, image, impression, index, indicator, inscription, instruction, jot, khipu, label, letter, literal, logo, manual, map, mark, message, myth, note, numeral, oeuvre, opera, opinion, opus, organon, ostrakon, page, pamphlet, parable, performance, photo, phrase, picture, piece, plan, play, plot, poem, pointer, post, prescription, presentation, program, prospectus, proxy, pseudonym, query, question, quipu, recipe, replica, report, representation, representative, rune, sample, scat, schematic, scheme, score, scrawl, scribble, script, sculpture, semaphore, seme, sentence, sigil, sign, signal, signature, simulacrum, sketch, song, specimen, spell, spoor, stimulus, story, string, study, symbol, symphony, symptom, tag, tale, talk, tally, tattoo, term, text, thought, tick, ticket, title, token, trace, track, tune, typo, utterance, variable, verse, veto, video, vote, warrant, word, work, and so on.
However that may be, one has the task of judging whether the bearers of information, meaning, or significance are indeed truth‑bearers or not. That judgment is typically expressed in the form of a specific truth predicate, whose positive application to a sign, or so on, asserts the truth of the sign.
Considered within the broadest horizon, there is little reason to imagine the process of judging a work, which leads to a predication of false or true, is necessarily amenable to formalization, and that task may always remain what is commonly called a judgment call. But there are many well‑circumscribed domains where it is useful to consider disciplined forms of evaluation and the observation of those limits allows for the institution of what is called a method of judging truth and falsity.
One of the first questions to be asked in this setting concerns the relationship between the significant performance and its reflective critique. If one expresses oneself in a particular fashion, and you or someone adds “that’s true”, is there anything useful at all to be said in general terms about the relationship between those two acts? For instance, does the critique add value to the expression criticized, does it say something significant in its own right, or is it but an insubstantial echo of the original sign?
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