Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TAMP (Truth in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy)
Période du rapport: 2023-01-01 au 2025-06-30
It is often thought that the notion that truth consists in correspondence with the facts goes back to antiquity and the Middle Ages. However, although past philosophers discussed the nature of truth in significant detail and with considerable philosophical sophistication, our understanding of past theories of truth is surprisingly limited and we lack a clear idea of how philosophical accounts of truth developed in later antiquity or in the Arabic and Latin medieval traditions.
This project offers a focused and systematic study of philosophical conceptions of truth in antiquity and the Middle Ages, which aims to explain the origins, motivations, and challenges faced by philosophical conceptions of truth in this period. It combines a focus on traditional metaphysical concerns (such as the nature of facts, correspondence, or whether some alternative account of truth rather than truth as correspondence is to be preferred) with a formal logical and semantic approach which examines how theories of truth were revised in the light of semantic paradoxes such as liar paradoxes (e.g. ‘this sentence is not true’, which, if true, is false, and if false, is true) and future contingents (e.g. ‘there will be a sea battle tomorrow’, which seems to raise several difficulties whether we treat it as true, false, or neither true nor false).
The result of this project will be a better understanding of philosophical theorizing about several central metaphysical, logical, and semantic issues across the Greek, Arabic, and Latin philosophical traditions and a appreciation of the relations between these philosophical traditions.
This project offers a focused and systematic study of philosophical conceptions of truth in antiquity and the Middle Ages, which aims to explain the origins, motivations, and challenges faced by philosophical conceptions of truth in this period. It combines a focus on traditional metaphysical concerns (such as the nature of facts, correspondence, or whether some alternative account of truth rather than truth as correspondence is to be preferred) with a formal logical and semantic approach which examines how theories of truth were revised in the light of semantic paradoxes such as liar paradoxes (e.g. ‘this sentence is not true’, which, if true, is false, and if false, is true) and future contingents (e.g. ‘there will be a sea battle tomorrow’, which seems to raise several difficulties whether we treat it as true, false, or neither true nor false).
The result of this project will be a better understanding of philosophical theorizing about several central metaphysical, logical, and semantic issues across the Greek, Arabic, and Latin philosophical traditions and a appreciation of the relations between these philosophical traditions.
The initial focus of the project in its first two years (2023–present) has been on research conducted by the PI into philosophical theorizing about truth in later antiquity. The research thus far completed has allowed for a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of ancient philosophical theorizing about truth and their development in antiquity as well as various difficulties arising from certain views about truth, future contingents, and the relation between truth and time in the Aristotelian, Stoic, and Neoplatonic traditions.
To date, the main results of this research includes: a collected volume on truth and relativism in ancient philosophy (projected for completion in 2025); a defence of a novel account of Aristotelian views concerning truth, which challenges the received understanding about Aristotle’s account of truth as correspondence and the status of statements which change truth value over time; a novel account of Stoic views concerning the nature of truth and modality which offers a new understanding of their account of statements about the future and divination; an original account of some aspects of Stoic logic; an original account of Neoplatonic views concerning truth and time, which has significant implications for understanding of time; and original research into several other issues concerning truth in antiquity with particular attention to the development of so-called ‘correspondence’ theories of truth in antiquity.
The research thus far undertaken sheds new light on several important aspects of ancient philosophical theorizing about truth and will serve as a basis for future research as the two new members will join the TAMP project in January 2025 and the principal focus of the project will turn to medieval philosophy.
To date, the main results of this research includes: a collected volume on truth and relativism in ancient philosophy (projected for completion in 2025); a defence of a novel account of Aristotelian views concerning truth, which challenges the received understanding about Aristotle’s account of truth as correspondence and the status of statements which change truth value over time; a novel account of Stoic views concerning the nature of truth and modality which offers a new understanding of their account of statements about the future and divination; an original account of some aspects of Stoic logic; an original account of Neoplatonic views concerning truth and time, which has significant implications for understanding of time; and original research into several other issues concerning truth in antiquity with particular attention to the development of so-called ‘correspondence’ theories of truth in antiquity.
The research thus far undertaken sheds new light on several important aspects of ancient philosophical theorizing about truth and will serve as a basis for future research as the two new members will join the TAMP project in January 2025 and the principal focus of the project will turn to medieval philosophy.
The combination of a focus on traditional metaphysical concerns alongside a formal logical and semantic approach across a wide corpus of ancient texts has yielded a sustained and focused study which provides new insight into several aspects of ancient theories about truth which are often neglected. This has allowed the tracing of the development of philosophical theories of truth in authors and texts which are usually studied in isolation from each other, has highlighted the contributions of several often neglected philosophers, and has also shed new light on major figures and texts.