Your complimentary articles
You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please
If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.
To buy or renew a subscription please visit the Shop.
If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.
Letters
Letters
The Liar Paradox • Unsympathetic Review • Kierkegaardian Waffle • Calling for a Spade • Natural Response • Not the End of Theology • Neuroses and Fallacies • What’s Demeaning of This? • Virtue is its Own Reward • Research Strategies
The Liar Paradox
DEAR EDITOR: Regarding the article ‘The Liar Lied’ (Issue 51), I find the distinction between ‘meaning’ and ‘assertion’ artificial and unconvincing, and I propose an alternative solution.
To begin with, there is nothing by which the truth-value of ‘This sentence is not true’ (let’s call this statement P) can be ascertained. It is neither true nor false, hence it is not true. So it has an initial element of non-truth (N). Since P asserts that it is not true, its truthvalue can now be judged with reference to this first element, and in this context it is true.
…
Advertisement
