What is Truth? Is truth a mere sentence property, or is it a property of the various kinds of propositions that exist? Then how can we measure a truth? Does truth exist literally or is it just a mere of justification?
The truth may be what valid reason maintains, and which has the purpose of scientific inquiry, as well as historical research. Historically, the theory of truth that is most popular among philosophers is the Correspondence Theory, first proposed by Plato and Aristotle. According to Plato and Aristotle, in their theory of realism, they said that truth is what the proposition has by adjusting what is needed by this world.
As for example; “The proposition p is true if and only if p agrees with the facts.”
As a further example of the effectiveness problem presented by the Sinovac Vaccine, one of the Turkish Health Ministers said in his press conference that he confidently said, “We are sure of the vaccine’s effect. We are now convinced that the vaccine is effective and safe for the Turkish people, the efficiency reached 91.25 percent.”
So it can be concluded that based on the correspondence, the vaccine is a truth that must be believed, because previously he also said that the effectiveness of the vaccine itself reached 91.25 percent in fighting Corona infection, which we also know that the population of Turkey itself, not the least, therefore based on the correspondence, the vaccine is true, both safely and effectively.
In this case, the Correspondence Theory is not only present in linking sentences to their references. But it is a kind of exotic relationship between, say, whole propositions and facts. Starting from the idea of Bertrand Russell who tried to show how true and factual propositions are to have the same structure and support each other to prove the truth. This idea of fact as a kind of ontological entity was first coined by the Correspondence group, which believed that facts were independent of thought. If true statements match his need for anything, then they all correspond to the same thing, much less for a good cause for himself or all. The existence of these two interrelated propositions makes a fact closer to the truth.
In addition to that, there is the Coherence Theory which can be a supporting method for a fact that is getting closer to the truth. Coherence theory is a claim where there is coherence between two propositions or more leading to its conclusion. For example, “A red elephant is just found dancing on the road”, and with this, I am again asking how can we prove that the statement is true?
Let’s prove it coherently; We all know that if the elephant is gray, can that elephant dance? Is it the elephant’s habitat around that area? And regardless of the habitat of the elephants around the area or not, is there a circus near the area? What makes the Elephant’s possibility escaped? And if we prove one by one that in fact elephants are gray, elephants are also not intelligent animals so it is impossible if there are elephants that can dance, and also if there is no elephant habitat in the area or even a circus area around it would be highly impossible the elephant existed in a street of animal rationale. This allows us to conclude that these people that have those statements are appeared to be drunk or hallucinated. And these two propositions can be proven true because there are more than two propositions that support each other, which are coherent, which have brought facts closer to truths.
In particular, Coherence Theory will claim that propositions are true if and only if they are coherent with the belief of the majority of people in society. And when there is an overall majority belief based on someone’s belief, then this can be supported by the intellectual conviction which makes the two propositions stronger in evidence.
Last but not least there is Pragmatism Theory that presents as a reinforcement of the Correspondence Theory and also the Coherence Theory, with this we are increasingly able to prove these theories as a yardstick in proving the truth of the existing Sinovac vaccine. In general, the meaning of pragmatism itself is that which is useful and useful to believe. Thus, the Theory of Pragmatism can also be interpreted as a belief that leads to the best results, which is the best justification for our actions, which leads to success and also pragmatic truth. With this Pragmatic Theory, it will be very useful when they believe a proposition, but the proposition can also be useful for other people who do not believe it. As in the example, those who doubt the truth of the vaccine itself, especially the Sinovac vaccine, but on the other hand, apart from all that, we cannot deny that we will eventually need this vaccine for the good of ourselves and many people. Based on the Pragmatic Theory, truth is what a person believes is ideally rational in the long run, apart from the truth itself, but these pragmatic activists believe that it provides benefits that make it the right thing to do. A pragmatic theory of truth thus emphasizes the broader practical and performative dimensions of speaking the truth in shaping certain types of discourse. And this practical dimension, according to pragmatic theory, is very important to present the concept of truth itself.
