in TRUTH 57 



in 



We are however still sufficiently remote from what 

 is ordinarily meant by truth. For truth is conceived 

 as something objective and coherent, while the truth- 

 valuations we have recognised are subjective and so far 

 seem chaotic. We may have found indeed the bricks 

 out of which the temple of Truth is to be built, but as 

 yet we have but a heap of bricks and nothing like a 

 temple. Before, moreover, we can venture to erect the 

 actual structure of objective Truth we must consider (a) 

 the nature of the ground over which the truth-valuation 

 is used, ($) the way in which our bricks cohere, i.e. the 

 formal nature of truth. 



As to (), the use of truth lies in the valuation of 

 fact. The objects of our contemplation when valued 

 as true become facts, and facts (or what we take to 

 be such) become available for knowledge when valued 

 as true. The system of truth therefore is constructed 

 by an interpretation of fact. But this interpretation 

 conforms to certain building laws, as it were. It consists 

 in the use of concepts, and rests on the fundamental 

 principles of thought. Hence ($) these result in a certain 

 formal character of truth. Whatever is harmonious 

 ( consistent ) with the fundamental assumptions of our 

 conceptual interpretation of reality is in one sense true. 

 But it is truth in a narrower sense than that required 

 for material truth. 1 In its fullest sense our truth must 

 harmonise, not only with its own ways of thinking but 

 with our whole experience, and it might well be that the 

 merely formal truth of consistency proved unable to 

 attain results of value for our wider purpose, and so was 

 not fully true. In point of fact it is useful, though not 

 adequate ; to show that a truth follows formally is not 

 enough to prove it de facto true ; to show that it involves 

 a formal flaw is enough to invalidate it. For we would 

 rather renounce our conclusion than the use of our formal 

 principles. 



1 Cp. p. 98 note. 



