Department Colloquium: Gail Fine (Cornell University)

It’s well known that Plato uses truth terminology in a variety of ways. The two main (perhaps the only) uses are ontological and semantic (or propositional): Plato speaks both of e.g. forms being true, and of e.g. sentences being true. But it’s not always clear which use is at issue where; nor is it clear how the two uses are connected. However, on one familiar view, in central epistemological and metaphysical passages in the middle dialogues the key use is ontological; and the ontological use grounds the semantic use. I assess this view.