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A Critique Of Wiredu’s Concept Of Truth
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1.4.THE COHERENCE THEORY OF TRUTH
Wiredu believes that truth is coherence.18 According to Wiredu, “a
statement is true if it coheres with our system of beliefsâ€.19 In other
words, the truth of a statement depends on the degree of it’s
harmoniously with a given and accepted system of beliefs. He wonder then
that Wiredu is continuously echoing the coherence theorist insistence
that statements are compared with other statements and not with
experience the world or an independent realm of realityâ€. Consequently
Kwasi Wiredu’s regards any attempt at such a comparison as “mysterious,
metaphysical and so meaninglessâ€.20
The coherence theory of
truth, which is characteristics of the great rationalist system
building metaphysicians like Leibniz, spinoza, Hegal and Bradlly,
further holds that a statement usually called a judgement is considered
true or false to the extent that it coheres or fails to cohere with a
system of other statement that it is a member of a system whose
elements are related to each other by ties of logical implication as the
elements in a system of pure mathematics are related. For instance, in
mathematics, the truth of falsity of a theorem in Geometry will be
dependent on its consistency with the anxious of the particular
system in use.21
They argue that this view of truth, more
than anything should not be viewed as making truth relative to the
individual perception. Rather, it continuously emphasized that truth
must be constructed relative to the systems in which the Item of
knowledge is perceived.22
Many proponents of this theory of
coherence hold that each member of a system implies every other
member. Hence, to test whether a statement is true is to test it for
coherence with a system of other statements.
According to
the logical positivist who supports this theory, the system with which
ALL TRUE statement must cohere of the contemporary culture. The
metaphysical supporters of coherence on the other hand, insist that
a statement cannot be properly called true unless it falls into
the one comprehensive account of the universe which , it self forms a
coherent system.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 7]
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