By truth we mean the recognition of reality. In order for a statement to be either true or false, therefore, it must first be recognizable—that is, it must relate to cognition. Three cases can be distinguished:

• A statement is true if it can be derived from full, noncontradictory integration of our experience of reality.
• It is false if it is inconsistent with such an integration.
• If a statement cannot be related to observable facts of reality at all, then it is neither true nor false, but meaningless.

The third category includes nonsense utterances and the strings of symbolic logic—unless the symbols in the latter are attached to specific propositions properly constructed from valid concepts (cf. pp. 1.3:2-3). MYSTIC B's claim regarding "imperceptible gremlins in the Oval Office" also lacks coherent meaning, since it cannot be related to any experience of real-world "gremlins." Our concept of "gremlin" is valid only as a sub-concept of "fictional being," which describes an attribute of human imagination and does not pertain to any nonhuman beings in reality.     

---

Previous