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Truth and the Future

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2025

John Capps*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY 14623 USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Can you have true beliefs about the future? Obviously it would be a good thing if you could. If you have true beliefs about the future then you can make plans and things will turn out as you expect. But many people – including philosophers – think that beliefs about the future cannot be true. The thought might be this: a belief cannot be true if there is nothing for it to be true about, and since the future does not yet exist, beliefs about the future cannot be true. I argue that this view depends on treating beliefs in the abstract. Once we look at them in their conversational context we will see how beliefs about the future can be true. Given the value of having true beliefs about the future – especially the near future – we should have no qualms pursuing them.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Royal Institute of Philosophy

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