The Coherence Theory

Hegel (1770-1831) and Bradley (1846-1924) among others have developed the coherence theory. It proposes the view that truth is derived from the relation between/among beliefs (judgments). A judgment is true when it complies with other judgments. Thus, the coherence theory accepts the degrees of truth which implies a judgment can be more or less true, but certainly can't be untrue.

No judgment is absolutely true because we can never attain a complete and absolute coherent system. Thus one can assert that some judgments are truer than others by virtue of being closes to the ideal. For example, on a fine morning John while reading the India's national newspapers found a news "IITs are the best engineering institutions for imparting quality education". Although different journalists wrote about this fact in their own ways in different newspapers, yet John understands the truth of the fact. Here the truth of the content (fact) is not showing one-to-one correspondence statements and the facts of the world, but by virtue of the coherence between two judgments. method. Thus, according to the coherence theory of truth, a statement is true if it is logically consistent with other statements and that are held to be true. On the other hand, a statement is false if it is inconsistent with others statements that are held to be true. The same argument can be extended to one's judgment.

Whatever efforts philosophers made to take care of and strengthen this theory, it ended up with some logical inconsistencies. Among those, an argument is, it is hard to believe that a judgment is more or less true. A question arises: how can a judgment "New Delhi is the capital of India" be more or less true? It can at best be either true or false. This argument is considered as one among the other primal reasons for the emergence of pragmatic theory of truth.