Increments - Episodes Tagged with “Truth”

#98 (C&R Chap 10, Part III) - What is truth?

Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 16:30:00 -0800

"What is Truth?", said jesting podcasters, who then stuck around for an answer. Back at it again with The Conjectures and Refutations Series (part three) on Chapter 10: Truth, Rationality, and the Growth of Scientific Knowledge. Can we say what truth is, even if we can never be certain we've found it? If not, can we say that science is approaching truth? How would we ever know? And why are so many theories of truth untrue?

We discuss

Ben's early reflections on Abigail Shrier's book Bad Therapy
Why did Popper feel the need to answer this particular "what is" question?
Can asking "what is truth" be a demogogic and bad-faith question?
The correspondence theory of truth vs The pragmatic theory of truth vs The coherence theory of truth
Alfred Tarski's formalization of the correspondence theory of truth
Are there problems with the correspondence theory?
The disagreement between Vaden and Deutsch on truth

References

Daniel Bonevac on the Correspondence theory of truth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlG_VaN1LHQ
Tarki's 1944 paper on the semantic conception of truth
Tarki's 1933 paper "On the concept of truth in formalized languages"
Deutsch's 2022 talk on truth: Musings about Truth # Socials
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#74 - Disagreeing about Belief, Probability, and Truth (w/ David Deutsch)

Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 09:30:00 -0700

What do you do when one of your intellectual idols comes on the podcast? Bombard them with disagreements of course. We were thrilled to have David Deutsch on the podcast to discuss whether the concept of belief is a useful lens on human cognition, when probability and statistics should be deployed, and whether he disagrees with Karl Popper on abstractions, the truth, and nothing but the truth.

Follow David on Twitter (@DavidDeutschOxf) or find his website here.

We discuss

Whether belief is a fruitful lens through which to analyze ideas
Whether a non-quantitative form of belief can be defended
How does belief bottom out epistemologically?
Whether statistics and probability are useful
Where should statistics and probability be used in practice?
The Popper-Miller theorem
Statements vs propositions and their relevance for truth
Whether Popper and Deutsch disagree about truth

References

The Popper-Miller theorem. See the original paper
David's 2021 talk on the correspondence theory of truth
David's talk on physics without probability.
Hempel's paradox
The Beginning of Infinity
Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem

Socials

Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani, @DavidDeutschOxf
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What's the truth about your belief on the probability of useful statistics? Tell us over at incrementspodcast@gmail.com. Special Guest: David Deutsch.