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TST PRACTICE

By Philosopher Michael Alan Prestwood

How is TST Theory of Truth different than verisimilitude?

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How is TST Theory of Truth different than verisimilitude?

TST is not all that different really, TST embraces the idea generally but there are details.

Verisimilitude, or truthlikeness, is the specific idea that one description of reality can be closer to the truth than another. And closer to truth within verisimilitude is closer to reality. That’s very much like TST. For both, truth is alignment with reality. For example, think about models in science, where older models are often not simply discarded as false. Instead, a newer model is just better. It may explain more, predict more accurately, and correct errors in the older one. In that sense, one model can be more truthlike than another.

While verisimilitude is mainly concerned with comparative truthlikeness, TST is a complete philosophical system. Within this specific belief of truth topic, TST separates several related questions. First, is the true or false category of an idea within its applied scope. Only after that first step do we then dive into how completely the idea aligns with reality. Understanding that difference matters because it keeps us from making two common mistakes: treating an incomplete model as false simply because it is incomplete, or treating all models as equally valid.

TST incorporates the same useful insight while grounding it in the Split between reality and ideas. Reality is determinate. Ideas are representations. Truth is correspondence within scope, while degree of truth concerns how well a representation captures reality. The wisdom is to hold both ideas at once: trust what has earned truth status within its scope, while remaining humble about how much of reality the model actually captures.

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A model can be true without being complete. Wisdom means trusting what reality supports while remembering that every idea is still only a representation.
Subject: Truthlikeness.
Do not confuse incomplete with false, and do not confuse uncertainty with “anything goes.” A good model can be true within its scope while still leaving much of reality unexplained. Trust ideas according to what they have earned, remain open to refinement, and remember: the map can improve without ever becoming the territory.

Flashcard.

What is the idea that one description of reality can be closer to the truth than another?.
Answer. Verisimilitude or truthlikeness..


That Philosophy FAQ, 

was first published on TST 2 months ago.
This tidbit is part of the broader TST project.
A tidbit may be small, but it does important work. It gives one claim a place to stand, a source to answer to, and a path back into the larger framework.

The end!

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