La Traccia del Vero: deflazionismo, sintassi e potere deduttivo

Formal approaches to truth share a common, undisputed assumption: the object
theory—usually a portion of arithmetic—is sufficient to mimic structural properties
of the intended bearers of truth. Truth is thus freely applied to natural numbers.
In recent years a partial revision of this ubiquitous habit has been proposed; in
this alternative framework, the theory formalizing syntactic operations and notions
concerning the object language is disjoint from the object theory. Some examples
of theories of truth with disentangled syntax, as well as an investigation on their
logical properties, have been recently considered by the author. In this work we
focus on their philosophical consequences. We will take into account the role that
theories of truth with disentangled syntax play in isolating different components of
the first step of our metamathematical reflection; moreover, we analyse the impact
that this construction has on the debate around the alleged insubstantiality of the
notion of truth advocated by deflationism.

Keywords: truth, deflationism, axiomatic theories of truth, truth bearers, conservativeness
argument