On the Degree of Truth in J. L. Austin's Theory of Truth

Abstract

J. L. Austin presented an elaborated correspondence theory of truth. His formulation of the truth condition of statements roughly is as follows: a statement is true when the situation to which it is correlated by the demonstrative conventions is of a type of situations with which the sentence used in making it is correlated by the descriptive conventions. Austin uniquely asserts there are various degrees of truth. His truth condition can explain this in two ways. Firstly, the degree of truth is that of a situation's being of a given type. Secondly, it is the position, in the hierarchy of types, of the type which a given situation is of.