#98 (C&R Chap 10, Part III) - What is truth?

About this episode

The episode explores the concept of truth through various philosophical lenses and discusses its implications in science and rationality.

"What is Truth?", said jesting podcasters, who then stuck around for an answer. Back at it again with The Conjectures and Refutations Series (part three) on Chapter 10: Truth, Rationality, and the Growth of Scientific Knowledge. Can we say what truth is, even if we can never be certain we've found it? If not, can we say that science is approaching truth? How would we ever know? And why are so many theories of truth untrue? We discuss Ben's early reflections on Abigail Shrier's book Bad Therapy Why did Popper feel the need to answer this particular "what is" question? Can asking "what is truth" be a demogogic and bad-faith question? The correspondence theory of truth vs The pragmatic theory of truth vs The coherence theory of truth Alfred Tarski's formalization of the correspondence theory of truth Are there problems with the correspondence theory? The disagreement between Vaden and Deutsch on truth References Daniel Bonevac on the Correspondence theory of truth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlG_VaN1LHQ Tarki's 1944 paper on the semantic conception of truth Tarki's 1933 paper "On the concept of truth in formalized languages" Deutsch's 2022 talk on truth: Musings about Truth #…

People in this episode

Hosts: Ben Chugg, Vaden Masrani

Topics covered

• truth
• scientific knowledge
• theories of truth
• philosophy
• rationality
• Popper's theories

Keywords

• truth
• scientific knowledge
• philosophy
• correspondence theory
• pragmatic theory
• coherence theory
• Popper
• Tarski
• Abigail Shrier

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Increments

Books & works: Bad Therapy, Musings about Truth, Tarski's 1944 paper on the semantic conception of truth, Tarski's 1933 paper "On the concept of truth in formalized languages"

More episodes of Increments

• #103 - AI, Evolution, and The God Test (w/ Robert Wright) · May 29, 2026 · 1h 47m
• #102 - Criticizing Crit-rats (w/ Bruce Nielson and Peter Johansen) · May 12, 2026 · 1h 47m
• #101 (C&R Chap 10, Part IV) - Was Popper Wrong about Verisimilitude? · April 19, 2026 · 1h 17m
• #100 - Celebrating the Centennial · March 26, 2026 · 1h 21m
• #99 - Debating Trump in Good Faith (w/ Don Robinson) · March 6, 2026 · 2h 10m
• #97 - Did Effective Altruism Have Ulterior Motives From the Beginning? · January 23, 2026 · 1h 42m