There do appear to be some advantages to constructing a system where each statement asserts its own truth, but the normative claim that truth should always be constructed in this manner seems to be hard to justify.
Why not? Or rather, why is this a normative claim rather than either an observation, or a decision about a formal system of statements?
This is the neatest resolution to the liar’s paradox that I’ve ever seen, and in retrospect it seems obvious. It’s extremely non-intrusive, only coming into play to render self-negating statements false.
“It’s extremely non-intrusive, only coming into play to render self-negating statements false.” That’s a good point, it is an extremely neat solution. I’m simply arguing that this should be accepted as a useful model, rather than the model of reality. What about the model where we declare “This statement is false” to be meaningless? If we want to accept Prior’s resolution as the model of reality we need to show that meaningless is an invalid model. I can’t see how you would be able to do this. Therefore, it seems more elegant to just accept Prior’s model as a useful model.
Why not? Or rather, why is this a normative claim rather than either an observation, or a decision about a formal system of statements?
This is the neatest resolution to the liar’s paradox that I’ve ever seen, and in retrospect it seems obvious. It’s extremely non-intrusive, only coming into play to render self-negating statements false.
“It’s extremely non-intrusive, only coming into play to render self-negating statements false.” That’s a good point, it is an extremely neat solution. I’m simply arguing that this should be accepted as a useful model, rather than the model of reality. What about the model where we declare “This statement is false” to be meaningless? If we want to accept Prior’s resolution as the model of reality we need to show that meaningless is an invalid model. I can’t see how you would be able to do this. Therefore, it seems more elegant to just accept Prior’s model as a useful model.