The consensus theory of truth, originated by Charles Sanders Peirce who called it pragmatism, and later pragmaticism, holds that a statement is true if it would be agreed to by all those who investigate it if investigation were carried sufficiently far in that particular direction. For example, if the consensus would be that the sky is blue, then the claim "the sky is blue" is considered to be true. Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American logician, philosopher, scientist, and mathematician. ... Pragmatism is a school of philosophy which originated in the United States in the late 1800s. ... Pragmaticism was a term used by Charles Sanders Peirce for his philosophy, in order to distance himself from pragmatism of William James ...

Consequence

Note that, if we work from the view that there exist mind-independent realities, and that people are seeking to know these realities, then it is possible in principle for everyone to agree but be mistaken about the facts. Thus, on the assumption that there are mind-independent realities, some forms of the consensus theory of truth would imply that a statement can be true even if it fails to describe reality. For example, if all who investigate "The center of Venus is molten copper" are destined to accept it, then it is "true" on the consensus theory even if they are all wrong about the fact of the matter. Peirce would deny that if investigation were carried sufficiently far that all who investigate would agree upon this.

Of course, if we take the "center of Venus" to be in some sense a mind-dependent reality, then the consensus view might fit within an idealistic metaphysic.

The situation may be ambiguous if we begin with some form of neutral monism, in which mind and the matter it knows are both constructions out of some stuff not in itself either mental or material. Neutral monism is the philosophical view that mental events and physical events are both to be reduced to aspects of some neutral stuff, which stuff considered by itself is neither physical nor mental. ...

Objections & Responses

• Objection: An objection to the theory is that it presupposes that for every possible statement, investigators are destined eventually to agree about it one way or the other. But this seems dubious: It has been argued, for example, that statements of beauty or morality are intrinsically controversial.

• Response: This objection is mistaken. The presupposition would only stand if it were assumed that all statements must have a truth value: Maybe Peirce would agree that statements like "She is beautiful" are not necessarily truth-holding statements.

The consensus theory of truth as defined is certainly in accord with such a response: As we can never agree as to whether or not "she is beautiful", the statement cannot be said to be true. But we cannot state that the counter-thesis ("she is not beautiful") is true either, otherwise we could come to an agreement about the first statement. Therefore, at least implicitly, Peirce states that according to the consensus theory of truth, not all statements can be assigned a truth value.

Not to be confused with...

The consensus theory of truth should not be confused with either subjectivism — the claim that what is true is whatever one happens to believe, or relativism — the belief that what is true is whatever is accepted by one's culture or community. In philosophy, a subject is a being which has subjective experiences or a relationship with another entity (or object). A subject is an observer and an object is a thing observed. ... Relativism is the view that the meaning and value of human beliefs and behaviors have no absolute reference. ...

See also

• Truth
• Coherence theory of truth
• Correspondence theory of truth

Much of this article is about philosophical ideas regarding what sorts of things are called true, and the meaning of the word truth. ... There are two distinct types of Coherentism. ... The correspondence theory of truth is the theory that something is rendered true by the existence of a fact with corresponding elements and a similar structure. ...

In arts and literature

• The Matrix

The Matrix is a film first released in the USA on March 31, 1999, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers (Andy and Larry). ...

References

Kirkham, Richard. Theories of Truth, MIT Press, Cambridge: 1992. Chapter 3 has a good description of Peirce's theory.