There are numerous truth theories. Some people assume that truth is an objective thing-in-itself, as if it were an object. ‘Is truth out there?” Tom asked Jane.
“Yes Tom, Jane said, “Truth is sitting at a cafe table across the bay having an espresso.”
“So Jane, I must go for myself and talk with truth, what does he or she look like?”
Truth is something more like a correspondence of an answer to a statement, or a relation of descriptive words that are consistent and verifiable.
“Is it raining outside Jane” asked Tom.”
“Yes Tom, it is raining outside this house”.
“Well Jane, I trust you, if you say it is then it must be true.” Is 1 + 1, 2? Yes. “Is that answer true?”. “No” “Then there is an inconsistency between the question and answer.”
– x- = +. A statement that is true and false regarding the existence and non-existence of a single item, that it exists or doesn’t exist in one moment in time is apparent contradiction. Quantum uncertainty is like that sometimes, supposedly some quanta can be at all places in theory yet at just one place when observed. Most statements concerning truth do not involve quantum uncertainty and trying to juxtapose the same conditions of being in two different realms, that of quantum particles and solid-state, decoherent mass.
Most statements using the word true or false are simply attempting to express the existence or non existence of select, designated states of affairs. Christians and Plato may describe some Supreme Being as truth-in-itself (realism and the Lord), yet that is like the problem of conflating different realms of being into one system using one lexicon for both instead of appropriate and different lexicons for each. People should agree to use a particular lexicon and then determine the existence or non existence of particular states of affairs or relation among objects, being and non-being. Sometimes the lexicon is tacitly accepted. Use-truth and social agreement, and convenient social truths aka big lies (some believe the Democrat impeachment effort is a big lie and like a Soviet show trial) can blind people with truth paradigm relativism of course. I believe Sartre called that false consciousness, although he was generally referring to self-deceit rather than a social paradigm of one class with operative lies that are regarded as truths as he described in The Critique of Dialectical Reason.
One might ask; “Should electric Yeti and Sasquatch be added as Christmas lawn decorations to reflect contemporary American ideals, to compliment the the nativity scene.” -Where is the truth in that?
I like disquotation theory a little more than correspondence theory although they are similar. Coherence theory is often exemplified with religions.Maybe Democrats have a coherence theory based on hate of President Trump (so all attacks on him are true). I.M.O truth theories have a basic premise of saying what exists and what doesn’t. Without that language is fairly meaningless, or rather, the meaning would be confused with the meaningless.
Truth theories were made by philosophers as a tool for examining how various propositions were determined to be true. That is a particular truth theory is a method-a logically, structured method, for determining the truth or falsehood of something expressed in words. I like coherence theory because of its Christian applications. It is important to remember though that the a given truth theory method paradigm can be applied to sundry applications. Disquotation theory has other names for it.
Syllogistic logic has its own implicit truth determining structure, yet it is well known that categorically or wrongly defined premises may invalidate the logical truth structure of a syllogism. Truth theories may be complimentary rather than in opposition sometimes. Stanford’s encyclopedia has a lot of content about truth theory. Logicians and linguistic philosophers have made a great investment in structuring truth theories. Deontological and coherence theories tend to go together. One may have a lexicon or universe to drop into a truth testing paradigm or modal logic structure. Boolean algebra truth tables are a good place to learn about logical structures for truth. Here is a description of the correspondence theory of truth.