True, false and paranormal
Jc Beall · Analysis · 2006
Two related but distinct projects dominate the Liar literature and work on semantic paradoxes, in general. NTP Non-triviality project: explain how, despite having both a truth predicate (in our language, for our language) and Liar sentences, our language is non-trivial. 1 ECP Exhaustive characterization project: 2 explain how, if at all, we can truly characterize – specify the ‘semantic status of ’ – all sentences of our language (in our language). These projects reflect the core appearances that give rise to the Liar paradox (and its ilk). Semantic paradoxes arise, at least in part, from the appearance that we can ‘exhaustively characterize ’ all sentences of our language in terms of ‘semantically significant ’ predicates, and truly do as much in our language. 3 Consider the classical picture according to which our semantically significant predicates are ‘true ’ and ‘false’. Our exhaustive characterization