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11.1 An evolutionary fable 11.1 An evolutionary fable
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11.2 Space and logical space 11.2 Space and logical space
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11.3 Reliability and traversable dimensions 11.3 Reliability and traversable dimensions
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11.4 Reliability-based content 11.4 Reliability-based content
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11.5 From reliability to truth 11.5 From reliability to truth
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11 Reliability, imagination, and the functional motivation for relativism
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Published:December 2016
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Abstract
This chapter considers why a language might employ a relativized notion of truth. It is argued that relativization is expected if truth is regarded as an idealization of a more primitive notion of reliability. A speculative account is offered of how a system employing truth might evolve from one merely employing reliability. Certain kinds of perspective-dependent representation retain their degree of reliability under imagined permutations of location, while others do not; this distinction corresponds to the distinction between relativistic and indexical interpretation. A formal model is developed in which possible worlds are represented as configurations of individuals in logical space. A specification of which dimensions of logical space are “traversable” yields a division of perspective-dependent predicates into those which require a relativist analysis and those which require an indexical analysis.
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