Truth (Princeton Foundations of Contemporary Philosophy) by Burgess John P. & Burgess Alexis G

Author:Burgess, John P. & Burgess, Alexis G. [Burgess, Alexis G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2011-03-20T04:00:00+00:00

5.5 UTILITY

If physicalism survives today, it is less as an active program than as an inchoate feeling that a physicalist account is needed, even if no one will for the foreseeable future be in a position to provide one, for certain explanatory purposes, and especially for explaining the utility of truth. Traditional pragmatists explained the utility of truth by defining truth as utility, but with that no longer considered a live option, it may be thought that a genuine explanation would require a naturalistic, causal account of truth: that a metaphysical theory could only provide a pseudo-explanation (of the virtus dormitiva type), and a deflationist theory not even that.

But deflationists claim they can provide an explanation of the utility of truth, after all. Consider first a special case. Imagine an agent with a choice among several courses of action that may lead to various possible outcomes among which the agent has preferences. Call beliefs of the form

(3) Acting thus-and-so will lead to the outcome most preferred.

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