Appendix B: Truths

Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science book series (BSPS, volume 287)

Abstract

There are at least two quite different concepts of truth: formal and factual. Leibniz called them vérités de raison and vérités de fait respectively. Whereas the formal truths are those of logic and mathematics, the factual truths are characteristic of ordinary knowledge, science, and technology. For example, while “There are infinitely many prime numbers” is a formal truth, “There are about six billion people at this time” is a factual truth. The confusion between the two kinds of truth is even worse than the confusion between value and price.

Keywords

Formal Truth Truth Criterion Correspondence Theory Factual Truth Partial Truth 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access

Reference

  1. Kreiman, Gabriel, Christof Koch, and Itzhak Fried (2000). Imagery neurons in the human brain. Nature 408: 357–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Tootell, Roger B. H., Martin S. Silverman, Eugene Switkes, and Russell L. de Valois. 1982. Deoxyglucose analysis of retinotopic organization in primate striate cortex. Science 218: 902–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Tootell, Roger B. H., Eugene Switkes, Martin B. Silverman, and Susan L. Hamilton. 1998. Functional anatomy of macaque striate cortex II. Retinotopic organization. Journal of Neuroscience 8: 1531–68.Google Scholar
  4. Zeki, Semir. 1993. A vision of the brain. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
  5. Damasio, Antonio R. 1994. Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York: G. P. Putnam.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Dept. of PhilosophyMcGill UniversityMontrealCanada

Personalised recommendations