A comparative analysis of Quine and Berkeley's notion of truth

Abstract

Epistemology is derived from the Greek word "epistemic" - knowledge and "logos" or theory of knowledge. As a branch of philosophy, it is concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge. It thus addresses the questions; what is knowledge? How is knowledge acquired? How do we know what we know? It tries to analyze the nature of knowledge and how it relates to connected notion such as truth, belief and justification. Given this background, it is indubitable that truth is one concept that guides every epistemological inquiry. This work presents a comparison between Quine's notion of truth, which points more to coherence theory of truth and Berkeley's which is more or less a uniform notion of truth implying objectivity. With a careful analysis, attempt would be made to show how both philosopher's notion of truth are related to the traditional theories of truth (correspondent, coherence, pragmation) and whether truth is relative or objective whether a reconciliation of belief, object, meaning, language, experience, reason, etc, is necessary for truth or not and whether man or the author of nature has power over what we claim to be truth.