Gupta, Anil; Belnap, Nuel The revision theory of truth. (English) Zbl 0858.03010 Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. xii, 299 p. (1993). This book develops a way of viewing the concept of truth (and several other concepts) that we have come to believe, after much hesitation, to be fruitful and correct. The view can be stated quite simply, though its exact meaning can be made plain only during the course of the book: Truth is a circular concept. We shall argue that this viewpoint enables one to make sense of the perplexing behavior of truth (e.g., its behavior in the Liar paradox), and to explain much of its ordinary unproblematic behavior.The material principles that are widely recognized as governing truth (the Tarski biconditionals) suggest strongly that truth is circular. (See section IV of chapter 4.) The difficulty in arguing for the thesis is created by widely accepted formal strictures which dictate that circular concepts do not exist and that circular definitions are illegitimate. Against these strictures we shall put forth and argue for the following claims:\(\bullet\) General theories of definitions are possible within which circular definitions – and, more generally, systems of mutually interdependent definitions – make logical and semantic sense.\(\bullet\) In the context of certain sorts of logical and philosophical inquiries, these formal strictures ought to be abandoned.The theory of definitions, we believe, is the proper framework for the construction of a theory of truth. Indeed, the theory of truth is an immediate corollary of the theory of definitions.We hope to show in this book that the viewpoint just sketched is attractive and plausible. We do not claim, however, to be setting down the theories of definitions and truth in their final form. Part of the reason for this is personal. Despite the many years we have spent on the subject, our study remains incomplete. But part of the reason is intrinsic to the subject. There are several conflicting desiderata one can impose on theories of definitions and truth, and it is not yet completely clear how these conflicts are best resolved. Cited in 11 ReviewsCited in 116 Documents MSC: 03A05 Philosophical and critical aspects of logic and foundations 03-02 Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to mathematical logic and foundations Keywords:concept of truth; circular concept; behavior of truth; Liar paradox; Tarski biconditionals; circular definitions; systems of mutually interdependent definitions; theory of definitions; theory of truth PDFBibTeX XMLCite \textit{A. Gupta} and \textit{N. Belnap}, The revision theory of truth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (1993; Zbl 0858.03010)