'Indeed,''Really,''In Fact,''Actually'

Authors

  • Gerald Vision Temple University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12697/spe.2008.1.1.03

Keywords:

deflationary theories of truth, truth, deflationism

Abstract

Interjections, such as those in the title, together with a few similar devices, when qualifying clauses expressing truth-conditions, or that such conditions have been satisfied, are entitled 'force-amplifiers'. Disputes between deflationary and inflationary truth-theories sometimes are assumed to turn on the supposed pivotal role that these devices are construed as playing in the interpretation of the clauses they qualify. I argue that they are not dispensable add-ons. Moreover, even in their absence the relevant clauses giving truth-conditions permit interpretations that are not deflationary-friendly. I maintain that this is a significant fact about the use to which writers put them. I then defend, a thesis about force-amplifiers that makes them indispensable to the interpretation of the relevant clauses, and that renders certain moves unavailable to popular deflationist treatments.

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Author Biography

Gerald Vision, Temple University

Philosophy Department Temple University Professor

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Published

2008-08-14

How to Cite

Vision, G. (2008). ’Indeed,’’Really,’’In Fact,’’Actually’. Studia Philosophica Estonica, 43–75. https://doi.org/10.12697/spe.2008.1.1.03