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Hello, what is truth? asked Punchus pilot, but then he famously didn't stay for an answer.

philosophers have been more patient and questions about the nature of truth have been part of the Western philosophical tradition since its origins in ancient Greece.

They've troubled some of the greatest thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to Kant and Hegel.

The 20th century saw a big change in the way some philosophers approach their subject.

Developments in logic offered a powerful new tool for philosophical analysis.

Thinkers began to see language and understanding the way we use words

as the key to gaining philosophical

insights. This so-called linguistic turn had a big effect on the way philosophers

thought about truth. Instead of asking what truth is, they began to look at how the word

truth operated with startling results. In fact, it's led some philosophers to say that we could

do away with the word truth altogether. We'd me to discuss truth in 20th century philosophy

a Simon Blackburn, fellow Trinity College,

Cambridge, and professor of philosophy

at the New College of the Humanities.

Jennifer Hornsby, professor of philosophy at Birkbeck University of London, and

Crispin Wright, Regis Professor of Logic at the University of Aberdeen and Professor

Philosophy at New York University. Simon Blackburn, a lot of people interested in truth

from scientists, a policeman, a priest, some are philosophers, but what sets the

philosopher's interest apart from man of the rest of us? Right, well I think for most people they're interested in truth because they're interested in the truth of a particular saying or remark or proposition.

So the policeman might be interested in the truth of who pinched the jewels or who did the crime.

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