Truthmaker: Risks and Side Effects. A Commentary on a Footnote by Saskia Wendel

Abstract

This paper discusses the critique against truthmaker jargon leveled by Saskia Wendel in her contribution. It is particularly concerned with the assumed closeness of truthmaking to metaphysical realism and to correspondence theories of truth, as well as with the alleged inappropriateness of truthmaker theories in view of religious utterances. The remarks in this paper try to show that Wendel’s critique is based on assumptions of proximities which, in the light of further scrutiny, are only coincidental: An acceptance of the truthmaking concept is not sufficient for committing anybody to any specific position on the wide spectrum of realist and antirealist theories, nor on the spectrum of differing concepts of truth. Additionally, the paper invites the reader to use the truthmaking concept as an important tool for assessing the rationality of religious utterances and theological assertions. Ultimately, it is an important part of being rational to clarify which model of the world would make our convictions true and which model of the world might be in conflict with them.