Work · Analytic Philosophy
On So-Called Relative Truths
Argues that truth is absolute and timeless: apparent relativity comes from incomplete or ambiguous sentences.
Introduction
Twardowski’s essay appeared in 1900 in a Lwów volume for the 500th anniversary of the refounding of Kraków University, and in German in 1902. It examines the claim, common among positivists and pragmatists of the time, that truth is relative to persons, times or circumstances. Twardowski argues that sentences such as “it is raining” only seem to change their truth value because they are elliptical or ambiguous; once completed with place, time and speaker, they express a judgement that is either true or false once and for all. Truth is therefore absolute and timeless. The essay laid a basis for the theory of truth in the Lwów–Warsaw School, on which Tarski later built, and it raised the question of future contingents that Łukasiewicz answered differently.
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