The coherence theory of truth is helpful in that it describes how we normally process new information, but it cannot truly tell us if something is true or false.
Truth will match reality, whether or not it coheres with a person’s framework of belief. That is, a truthful statement will describe things the way they really are. The coherence theory of truth diverges from its chief competing theory, the correspondence theory of truth, which says truth is that which corresponds to reality. As a result, he considers the ghost theory to be false. The idea of ghosts and hauntings does not cohere with the man’s existing set of beliefs. So, he accepts the idea that 2 + 2 = 4 that notion coheres with what he already accepts as true.Ĭonversely, a man is told there is a ghost in the house, but he rejects the news because it conflicts with everything he already believes about life and death and spirituality. To determine if this is true, the child screens the idea through the belief system that he already has in place: he believes his teacher is honest, and he believes his experience is trustworthy-every time his teacher adds two blocks to the two already on the table, he counts four. To illustrate how the coherence theory of truth works, we can think of a child being told that 2 + 2 = 4.
Philosophers who have held to the coherence theory of truth include Leibniz, Spinoza, and Hegel. According to the coherence theory of truth, that which is false can be identified by the contradictions it raises within an existing framework of belief. Looked at together, all the various parts of the belief system cohere, or unite, and this provides the basis for truth, at least within that set of beliefs. That is, we can know that an idea is “true” when it fits logically into a larger, more complex system of beliefs without contradicting anything.
The coherence theory of truth, or coherentism, asserts that truth is found in its coherence with a particular set of propositions.