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I read this article:

https://aeon.co/essays/on-the-advantages-of-believing-that-nothing-is-true

I just don't understand how someone can believe something is the case but is not true. It's like saying you believe unmarried men exist, but you don't believe in bachelors. If you are denying the existence of truth, then what exactly is truth? It seems like its denying the existence of something that is not truth - or at least how truth is used generally. A statement is true if its in accordance with fact or reality. How can someone agree with "snow is white" is a statement in accordance with fact or reality, but not agree that it is true?

HelpMePlease
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    Your confusion is understandable. On standard conventions, "A is B" is synonymous with "it is true that A is B" (T-schema). However, even without nihilism, there is some intuitive room between asserting something and declaring its truth. One can be prepared to act on something (assert it), while hesitating on its truth, a higher bar. If one wishes to explore this difference they would reject the T-schema. Nihilists take this to the extreme: not just hesitating on truth occasionally, but denying it wholesale. One motivation for this (Liggins's) is that it gives a solution to the Liar paradox. – Conifold Aug 14 '23 at 09:35
  • But nihlists don’t deny everything - they just deny its truth value. So they won’t deny Snow is white, they will deny Snow is white is true. Which sounds stupid. Its like saying “I believe in the existence of water but I don’t believe in the existence of H2O”. Like what are they even saying? – HelpMePlease Aug 14 '23 at 16:21
  • It is more like saying “I believe in the existence of water but that is not a truth, there are no truths”. As I said, even some non-nihilists have different standards for what they believe and for what they consider established as "truth". As long as the standards are different, saying what nihilists say can be made sense of. – Conifold Aug 14 '23 at 17:41
  • What does truth mean for alethic nihlists? What is their solution to Liar Paradox? – HelpMePlease Aug 14 '23 at 19:42
  • See [Asay's Something is True](https://philarchive.org/archive/ASASIT) for a survey of various alethic nihilists and their arguments, along with his objections. Liggins's solution to the Liar is explained on p. 3. Disallowing the passage from "(L) is not true" to "'(L) is not true’ is true" by the T-schema, blocks the derivation of the contradiction. For non-nihilist views of truth that still allow to reject the T-schema, see [SEP, Pragmatic Theory of Truth](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth-pragmatic/). – Conifold Aug 15 '23 at 08:22

2 Answers2

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How can someone agree with "snow is white" is a statement in accordance with fact or reality, but not agree that it is true?

For the nihilist, saying "snow is white" corresponds with reality, but calling it "true" mistakenly assumes there is some real property of "truth" that it possesses. They argue "truth" is an incoherent philosophical notion that should be abolished entirely.

In a sense, they are arguing we should stop using the word/concept "truth" at all when analyzing statements, and just talk about whether they correspond with reality, cohere with other beliefs, are useful models, etc.

It is a pretty counterintuitive viewpoint that requires rejecting common notions of truth and semantics. But the nihilist sees "truth" as a misleading philosophical term that should be eliminated from discourse altogether.

  • What does truth mean to alethic nihlist? In order to deny the existence of something, you need to clearly define it. Because what it seems like is that the alethic nihlist is denying something other than truth. – HelpMePlease Aug 14 '23 at 16:25
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Isn't Trump's philosophy a form of alethic nihilism?

Olivier5
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  • Alethic nohlists don’t deny everything, they just deny anything is true (whatever tf that means) – HelpMePlease Aug 14 '23 at 16:22
  • *Fake 'true's!* – Scott Rowe Aug 15 '23 at 01:50
  • @HelpMePlease You may wish to take into consideration that there exist fake philosophers out there, just like there are fake policemen, fake doctors, or (as Trump was) fake presidents. These pretenders are keen to impress others with bold counter-intuitive statements, usually of the "illusionist" type: "Time is an illusion! The universe is a simulation!!..." This shit bewilders the kids, so it sells well, but it's just sophistry. Don't be a sucker, move on. – Olivier5 Aug 15 '23 at 09:43
  • @Olivier5 I don't know. I posted this on badphil and people were saying he's a legitimate philosopher. Honestly, I don't care whether alethic nihlism "is the case" or "is true" or whatever. I just what to know what tf it means. I literally can't even sleep properly because I don't understand what truth even means in this context. – HelpMePlease Aug 15 '23 at 10:14
  • @HelpMePlease So some guys on Reddit told you that it was legit, and you believed him. Well, I'm some guy on some internet forum too, and I'm telling you not to waste time and sleep on manifest absurdities. – Olivier5 Aug 15 '23 at 12:20
  • @Olivier5 https://www.reddit.com/r/badphilosophy/comments/10hnp25/nothing_is_true/ – HelpMePlease Aug 17 '23 at 01:08
  • @HelpMePlease Nobody believes that shit. They just toy with the idea for the fun of confusing themselves. In my experience, this is really bad philosophy, when one's only goal is to reach dizziness and confusion... But I guess it's fun. – Olivier5 Aug 17 '23 at 08:32