Deflationary Theory of Truth - Prosententialism

Prosententialism

Prosententialism asserts that there are prosentences which stand in for and derive their meanings from the sentences which they substitute. In the statement:

Bill is tired and he is hungry.

the pronoun "he" takes its reference from the noun "Bill." By analogy, in the statement:

He explained that he was in financial straits, said that this is how things were, and that therefore he needed an advance.

the clause "this is how things were" receives its reference from the previously occurring sentential clause "he was in financial straits", according to a prosententialist account.

How does this relate to truth? Prosententialists view the statements that contain "is true" as sentences which do not contain a truth-predicate but rather contain some form of prosentence; the truth-predicate itself is part of an anaphoric or prosentential construction. Prosententialists point out the many parallels which exist between pronouns and prosentences. Pronouns are often used out of "laziness", as in:

Bill is tired and he is hungry

or they can be used in quantificational contexts, such as:

Someone is in the room and he is armed with a rifle.

In a similar manner, "it is true" can be used as a prosentence of laziness, as in:

Fred believes that it is raining and it is true.

and as a quantificational prosentence, such as:

Whatever Alice believes is true.

Prosententialists therefore reject the idea that truth is a property of some sort.