Guiding Questions for Walker's "The Coherence Theory"

1. What’s the difference between a theory about the nature of truth, a criterion for truth, the concept of truth, and the meaning of the truth predicate? In which of these categories do correspondentism, coherentism, and deflationism fall?

2. What are the (primary) truth bearers?

3. What does the correspondence theory consist in?

4. What does the coherence theory consist in?

5. What’s Russell’s main objection to coherentism? How does Walker reply to this objection?

6. What’s Walker’s designated set of believes other beliefs must cohere with to be true?

7. What is “coherence” supposed to mean?

8. State the seven objections against coherentism Walker considers, along with his answers. How satisfactory are these answers in philosophical terms?

9. Assume the correspondence theory of truth is right, and let Birdland be a country in which "dogs" means "birds". Is true in that world that dogs have two legs? Assuming the coherence theory of truth is the correct one in every world, is it true that if there were no beliefs there would be no truth at all?

10. What does anti-realism consist in? Is anti-realism committed to a coherence account of truth? Are coherentists committed to anti-realism?

11. What does idealism consist in? Are coherentists committed to it? Are idealists committed to coherentism?

12. In which sense are the correspondence theory and the coherence theory of truth incompatible?

13. Are the correspondence theory and the coherence theory of truth incompatible with deflationism?

14. Why do pure coherence theories fail? What does Walker proposal to consider impure coherence theories consist in?

15. Why don’t the problems that affect pure coherence theories carry on to correspondence theories? How does Walker understand the idea of correspondence to the facts?