It's a small world after all. It so happens that I ran into Jennifer here at the UC. We ended up talking about class and the fact that even when we need to talk about other things, such as truth or logic, we end up talking about language, because we know it so well. This led Jennifer to give her definition of truth. For her, truth is not the agreement between matter and mind; it is the agreement between a cultural definition and what one says (although "agreement is probably not the best word.") I mentioned to her that she sounds very Hegelian in saying that.
For Jennifer, the statement "my pen is blue" is not true because the pen is blue; it's true because the pen is what Society calls blue. In other words, it is true because society is willing to accept that it's true. Truth is not accordance between word and matter; it is accordance between word and the truths that society as a whole accepts.
People only call any shade of blue "blue" because it is accepted that such a color is, in fact, "blue."
I apologize in advance for any misrepresentation of Hegel I may have committed (that man's prose is so difficult to penetrate that I'm sure my understanding of him is at least somewhat flawed or imperfect.)
I do, however, think that this is important input to our discussion of truth.
[Lightly edited to enhance readability -TT]
Jennifer the Hegelian: A Theory of Truth
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Posted - Apr 09 2010 : 5:53:27 PM
