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propositions could be either tested or correlated to the body of
propositions taken to be valid.
(2) The theory of coherence itself is no exception to its own
truth. It too, as a formulated theory, is to be tested in the same
manner. But how, you say, is this possible? How could I apply
the theory if I did not first formulate it, and how if it is true,
could I formulate it if I did not know its truth to begin with?
The answer is that the coherence theory is merely the formulation,
in consciousness, of the way in which the a priori categorical
structure ideally functions from the outset in the
manipulation of experiential data. It is not then that I need to
know the theory to begin with, but that the theory is a conscious
description of the way in which I do in fact think to begin with.
The whole argument for synthetic apriorism is therefore an argument
for the coherence theory of truth: and just as the apriori
categories as such were established by showing that without
them knowledge would be impossible, so the coherence theory
is established in the same way by showing that rational nature
does in fact test its propositions in this manner and that if valid
knowledge were not thus attainable, skepticism would result.
(3) The theory does not appeal to certain axioms as selfevident.
In fact, no proposition is self-evident as such. If it is a
basic proposition, its validity is demonstrated by showing that
if the proposition were not true, knowledge would be impossible.
It is sometimes said, for example, that the law of contradiction
is self-evident because its reaffirmation is involved in its
denial. But as Blanshard points out, this argument is itself an
appeal to coherence: [[Page 103]]
[indent] The demonstration lies in showing that acceptance
of the law is necessary on pain of incoherence. The argument
is: if the law of contradiction holds, then within the system governed
by it even the assertion that it does not hold assumes that
it does. The incoherence is between the principle of the system