1 TRUTH & TRANSCENDENCE : Turning the Tables on the Liar Paradox

I. A Methodological Turnaround. Confronting the Liar Paradox is commonly viewed as a prerequisite for developing a theory of truth. As soon as the truth theorist accepts one of the most minimal principles of truth, the equivalence principle, which in one of its forms is often formulated (schematically) by (E) is true iff (if and only if) P, where “P” stands for any sentence and “” stands for a name of that sentence, the Liar Paradox arises. And it is only after the truth theorist incorporates some device (like a Tarskian hierarchy or a Kripkean grounding process) for blocking the paradox that he is entitled to continue developing his theory. In this paper I would like to turn the tables on this traditional conception of the relation between the Liar Paradox and the theory of truth. I would like to show that the theorist of truth need not worry about the Liar Paradox in developing her theory, that if she focuses deeply enough on the “material” adequacy of her theory (i.e., whether it adequately accounts for the nature of truth) as distinct from its “formal” adequacy (i.e., whether it is a consistent theory), the Liar challenge is unlikely to arise for her theory at all. 1