Philosophical thinking about truth has revolved around two key questions. First, what is the nature of truth? Second, why should we value it? It has proven difficult to answer both questions at once. Some theories analyse truth in terms of goodness. Truth is a specific kind of goodness for beliefs. They have an easy explanation of truth's value, but they obscure the connection between truth and how things are. What does belief have to do with whether it's true that there is water on Mars? Other theories treat truth as a descriptive feature: a claim is true when things are as it says they are. Such theories face a version of G. E. Moore's open question problem. How could a claim's purely descriptive features make it good or right to believe? The problem of truth's value is the problem of reconciling a good theory of what truth is with a good theory of why truth is valuable. This is the first monograph focused on solving it for theories that construe truth in the purely descriptive way. Drawing on minimal assumptions about truth's nature, it proposes a virtue-theoretic understanding of truth's value. The attitude of valuing truth is a morally laudable character trait. That is, it's a virtue. But its virtuousness doesn't stem from the nature of truth. It arises because, in manifesting the trait, we promote the overall good. A good society needs to members who value truth over falsehood and ignorance, for themselves and for others.

About the Author
Chase B. Wrenn is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy in 2001 from Washington University in St. Louis. His research focuses on issues of truth and the justification of beliefs. He has published articles in such journals as Philosophical Quarterly, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Synthese, and Erkenntnis. He is the author of Truth (2015, Polity Press) and the editor of Naturalism, Reference, and Ontology (2008, Peter Lang). He has previously received the Richard M. Griffith Award from the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology and the American Philosophical Association's William James Prize.


Book Information
ISBN 9780192869500
Author Prof Chase B. Wrenn
Format Hardback
Page Count 208
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 384g
Dimensions(mm) 222mm * 145mm * 15mm