The Deflationary theory of truth reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Deflationary theory of truth

The deflationary theory of truth (also called the redundancy theory of truth, and deflationism) is the theory that is truth is redundant with is. In other words, to assert that a statement is true is just to assert the statement itself.

The original version of this bare-bones theory was called was due to F. P. Ramsey and Alfred Ayer, English philosophers who wrote their works in the 1920s and 1930s.

This has loose connections with the "performative theory of truth", associated with Peter Strawson.

It should be noted that the deflationary theory doesn't say: "It's true that (pigs fly) if I claim that (pigs fly)." It says: "It's true that (pigs fly) if (pigs fly)."

There are many semantic inconsistancies with the deflationary theory of truth. (ie try to apply it to "the last thing Plato said was true.").

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