CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Gu, Zhiwei |
|---|---|
| Title | A Wittgensteinian Critique of the Orthodox Truthmaker Theory |
| Summary | In this thesis I criticise the orthodox truthmaker theory in a Wittgensteinian way. According to the orthodox truthmaker theory, every truth is made true by at least one truthmaker and every truthmaker necessitates the truth-value of its truthbearer. First, I argue against truthmaker maximalism that its motivations are unmotivated, since it has the same problem with Augustine’s picture of language which is not immune from Wittgenstein’s argument. So there is a parallel argument against truthmaker maximalism. Second, I show that Wittgenstein’s family resemblance concept of proposition implies a pluralistic view on explanation, which means that besides truthmakers, we have other explanans. Third, within the framework of the pluralistic view I address the problem of negative truths for truthmaker maximalism. Finally, I argue against Armstrong’s argument for truthmaker necessitarianism. |
| Supervisor | Ben-Yami Hanoch |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/gu_zhiwei.pdf |
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