'Jumping in at the Deep End: Williams, Truth and the Information Pool'

Huw Price (University of Bonn)

The VICTR Steering Committee is pleased to announce the final VICTR talk for this semester, which is from Huw Price, entitled 'Jumping in at the Deep End: Williams, Truth and the Information Pool'.
The talk will be on Thursday Nov 30, 17:00 EST / 22:00 UTC / Friday Dec 1 9:00 AEDT
  Abstract: In Truth and Truthfulness (2002), Bernard Williams proposes a genealogy for the norm of truthfulness. It is based on an imagined State of Nature, in which social creatures share an interest in contributing to a common pool of information. Williams argues that instrumental values of Accuracy and Sincerity will lead these creatures to value truthfulness. Williams is clear that he is not proposing a genealogy for truth itself. He suggests that truth needs to be regarded as primitive, for Davidsonian reasons. By my lights, this looks underambitious. I think there’s interesting work to be done in explaining how such creatures get to the point of thinking of themselves as contributing to a common pool, work that shows us something central about truth. In failing to see that this is a proper target for genealogy, Williams throws his fictional creatures in at the deep end. In this talk I’ll recommend a more gradual approach.
You can register for this talk by following this link, and after registration you will receive the meeting information: https://utica-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcpf-Ggqj0tH9GCPs5qL6d236DLBVj14rsa 

The Virtual International Consortium for Truth Research (VICTR) is sponsored by the Future of Truth project at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, the University of Waikato, Fairmont State University, the University of Alabama, and the Applied Ethics Institute at Utica University.