Do Necessary Truths Lack Truthmakers?

Abstract

    There is a widely accepted claim that necessary truths lack truthmakers. The (implicit) argument for this claim hinges on the ideas that necessary truths hold regardless of what exists, and that truth depends on the existence of its truthmaker. By analyzing the role of dependence in truthmaking, the claim that necessary truths cannot have truthmakers is challenged. I distinguish two senses of “dependence” and argue that necessary truths can have a “productive” kind of truthmaker. Finally, I propose an account of truthmakers for a certain class of necessary truths──metaphysical necessities──based on essentialism.