Aristotle on Truth and Meaning

FAIN: FS-50235-09

San Diego State University Foundation (San Diego, CA 92182-1931)
Mark R. Wheeler (Project Director: March 2009 to March 2011)

A four-week college and university teacher seminar for sixteen participants devoted to the study of Aristotle's account of truth and meaning.

This seminar will be devoted to the study of Aristotle's account of truth and meaning. In particular we will study Aristotle's semantic conception of truth and falsehood in light of his account of how human language and thought represent the world, and in relation to other conceptions of truth and falsehood-both his own, those of his predecessors and leading contemporary approaches. Aristotle developed a model of language and thought according to which linguistic assertions signify beliefs in the minds of language users. These beliefs represent the world and true beliefs represent the world the way it actually is (while false beliefs fail to do so). Aristotle's theory of linguistic signification, representational thought and truth are neatly integrated and provide a highly sophisticated account of how we represent the world. In order to understand his theory better, we shall examine relevant texts from his logical works, his physical and biological works, and his psychological works.