Harris, Hegel, and the truth about truth

Kenneth R. Westphal

pp. 23-29

in: Gary Browning (ed), Hegel's phenomenology of spirit, Berlin, Springer, 1997

Abstract

Harris's reflections on Hegel's correspondence theory of truth are rich and suggestive. We agree about many important, if controversial, points: Hegel relied on coherence as an important element in justification, he did not hold a coherence theory of the nature of truth, he is a realist, he holds a correspondence theory of the nature of truth, "truth as correspondence" is crucial to Hegel's view of philosophical truth, and human beings attain truth as a social and historical enterprise.¹

Cited authors

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich