Skepdick wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2024 11:22 am
Is the problem-predicate defined in your theory? meta-theory? meta-meta theory?
Tarski's workaround for the undefinability of the truth as a predicate in the object language is to define this predicate in the metalanguage.
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In Tarski's theory of truth, the "truth predicate" - a term used to denote whether a sentence is true or not - is considered a predicate that exists solely within the "metalanguage," meaning it is used to talk about the sentences of the "object language" and cannot be expressed within the object language itself; this is crucial to avoid paradoxes like the liar's paradox.
Key points about Tarski's truth predicate:
Object language vs. metalanguage:
The object language is the language being analyzed (e.g., a formal logic system), while the metalanguage is the language used to talk about the object language.
Avoiding paradoxes:
By placing the truth predicate in the metalanguage, Tarski prevents self-referential statements that could lead to contradictions like "This sentence is false".
Convention T:
The core principle of Tarski's theory is often referred to as "Convention T," which essentially states that a sentence in the object language is true if and only if the metalanguage predicate "is true" applies to that sentence.
This does not solve, however, the problem of defining a truth predicate that operates on sentences in the metalanguage itself. This can only be achieved in the meta-meta-language.
So, convention T is indeed another exercise in infinite meta-regress.
By the way, the liar paradox is indeed avoided by not defining the truth predicate in the object language but this is just a side effect of the impossibility to do so, which is in fact caused by Carnap's diagonal lemma. That is why the proof for the undefinability rests directly on Carnap's diagonal lemma.