Tricky Truths: How Should Alethic Pluralism Accommodate Racial Truths?

Acta Analytica 39 (2):335-357 (2024)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Some alethic pluralists maintain that there are two kinds of truths operant in our alethic discourse: a realist kind and an anti-realist kind. In this paper, we argue that such a binary conception cannot accommodate certain social truths, specifically truths about race. Most alethic pluralists surprisingly overlook the status of racial truths. Douglas Edwards is, however, an exception. In his version of alethic pluralism—Determination Pluralism—racial truths are superassertible (anti-realist) true rather than correspondence (realist) true. We argue that racial truths exhibit features of both superassertibility (anti-realism) and correspondence (realism). This suggests a fuzzy boundary between realist and anti-realist kinds of truth. There may be a continuum rather than a dichotomy of truths. We conclude by sketching one way for alethic pluralists to accommodate such a notion.

Author Profiles

Ragnar Van Der Merwe
University of Johannesburg
Phila M. Msimang
University of Stellenbosch

Analytics

Added to PP
2023-11-01

Downloads
307 (#70,586)

6 months
143 (#27,902)

Historical graph of downloads since first upload
This graph includes both downloads from PhilArchive and clicks on external links on PhilPapers.
How can I increase my downloads?