Is Truth Mind-Dependent? Oh, and hi @theorem! — Wayfarer
Hi!
My view: truth is mind-dependent, because it is the predicate of a proposition. Propositions are true, or not true, and whether they are, or are not, is a matter of judgement, and judgement is by a mind. — Wayfarer
That's pretty much my view as well.
But there's another point - a mathematical proof, for example, may be 'mind-independent' in one sense - that is, it is not dependent on being grasped by this or that mind; it's not a matter of convention as to whether it is true or no; so in that sense, it is 'mind-independent'. — Wayfarer
Right. Basically (and as you rightly point out) mathematics is objective and public while yet remaining entirely in the order of intelligible being. This conclusion will seem counter-intuitive to the modern sensibility, but if we reject the Cartesian division of being into the mutually exclusive categories of res cogitans (subjective) and res extensa (objective) along with the Lockean analysis of sense perception it perhaps becomes bit more tractable.
This type of understanding actually tends towards 'objective idealism', that there is a rational or intelligible order, which is grasped though the intellect ('nous'); which I think is a strong underlying strain in the history of Western philosophy, until Hegel, but it's objective reality is now contested, due to the fact that physicalism generally rejects the idea of an 'intelligible order' (which is, however, still preserved in schools such as Feser's 'Aristotlean-Thomism'.) — Wayfarer
Agreed, though I'm not sure it's entirely fair to lay the blame at the feet of "physicalism". It's one thing to point out the failures of physicalism, quite another to propose a viable alternative. Critics of physicalism (such as Nagel, Chalmers, et al.) are notorious for coming up short in regards to the latter. But to your point in regards Feser, I think we are starting to see a bit of a resurgence of classical Aristotelian thought within the academic community, both within metaphysics and within the sciences. I think that the realization that Aristotle's hylemorphic metaphysics can (more or less) be cleanly separated from his erroneous physics is finally starting to take root within the modern mind. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming decades.