Thursday, July 26, 2007

Dewey on Truth

I've just completed a draft of a paper titled "Dewey on Truth". (John Dewey was the great American educator and philosopher of the early 20th century. His philosophical outlook - so-called "pragmatism" - dominated the American philosophical scene for roughly the first third of the 20th century.)

The paper is available here. Its aim is to present and then refute Dewey's theory of truth. Dewey's view - roughly put - is that a proposition is a plan of action and that it is only judged true when that plan of action has proven successful when put into action. The paper ends with the suggestion that Dewey ought to follow later pragmatists and become a truth-eliminativist.

If you're curious about current philosophical debates about the nature of truth, you might just find the paper worth your time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I was wondering if your paper was still available? When I follow the link I get an error message.
Thanks!