Formal properties of veridical statement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26485/PS/2021/70.3/6Abstract
This paper focuses on the analysis of selected talk broadcasted in the weekly radio program “Wojna cywilizacji” (Polish Radio 24). The conversation was devoted to presenting the audience with the thesis (obvious for some, and absurd for others), claiming that the world is facing a political and moral revolution. The primary goal of the broadcast was clear: to tell the audience the truth about the origins, course and possible future of the revolutionized world. However, an additional and indirect goal was to develop the conversation in such a way that the presumed truth about the revolution becomes undeniable, despite the controversial status of the thesis itself. In order to describe this double phenomenon, the concept of the veridical statement is proposed and accompanied by its six formal properties. These properties are intended to describe the practical task of “telling the truth” about the revolution to the audience. The presented concepts are inspired by three analytical traditions: the sociology of scientific knowledge, discursive psychology, and social epistemology. These influences make it possible to compare the formal properties of the veridical statement with a problem that has been tentatively defined as knowledge from someone else’s announcement. This problem concerns the knowledge that people derive from other people’s utterances (that may also be presented in the media). Both problems, the veridical statement and the knowledge from someone else’s announcement, serve as a part of the circumstances invented for the audience. The paper concludes with comments on the interdisciplinary nature of the issues raised and questions about the possibilities of critical engagement with veridical statements.
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