Truth ― A Contemporary Reader

For the first time Truth: A Contemporary Reader brings together the essays that have shaped two aspects of a fundamental philosophical topic: the nature of truth and the value of truth.

Featuring 24 essays from 1878 to 2016, this up-to-date reader includes seminal work by leading figures in contemporary analytic philosophy. It charts the development of the central 'grand proposals' about the nature of truth, and subsequently how their influence gradually diminished in face of new theories developed in the 20th and 21st-centuries. The reader also demonstrates how truth is often taken to be valuable in various ways, in particular as the norm of correctness for belief and assertion, and the relationship between truth and other epistemic values.

With introductory overviews to each group of related papers complemented by guides to further reading and a glossary, this reader introduces the central debates, familiarizes students with the most important work in the field and covers pivotal theories of truth including:

- correspondence theories
- coherentism, pragmatism, verificationism
- deflationary, primitivist, and pluralist theories

The connection between the nature and value of truth is intimate. By showing how thoughts about truth and value bear heavily on one another, Truth: A Contemporary Reader provides new opportunities for understanding and advancing the link between these central topics. This is an essential collection for anyone studying or working in metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of language today.

Douglas Edwards works primarily on issues in metaphysics and thephilosophy of language, with particular focus on truth. He has published numerous articles on truth in leading philosophy journals, including Analysis, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, The Journal of Philosophy, and Synthese. He is the author of The Metaphysics of Truth, (Oxford University Press, 2018), and Properties (Polity Press, 2014). He received his PhD from the University of St Andrews, and has since held positions at University College Dublin, the University of Aberdeen, Hamilton College, and Utica College, where he currently works.