Erica
I'm not sure if you are familiar with Tarski's theory of truth, but if not,
you can find out more at the following
http://www.ditext.com/tarski/tarski.html
or for an overview Im sure Wiki has something.
Strictly Tarski's theory applies only to a formal (logical) language - not
the 'impure' language of film or sound film, or even ordinary language.
Simply put, the theory says that the way of stating the truth conditions of
a particular sentence (eg 'The kid is stealing the DVD') is in the following
'disquotational form'.
The sentence 'The kid is stealing the DVD' is true if and only is the kid
is stealing the DVD.
It looks terribly banal but wondered if we could do something like this
using film. eg
Shot of a video surveillance monitor showing a kid stealing a DVD with a pan
from the monitor down to the shop showing the kid stealing the DVD, and a
voiceover saying 'The shot (on the monitor) is true if and only if (pan)
this is happening.'
Now that is a long way from the genius of Tarski. And I dont think film can
do this - except in its own very non-formal, cinematic way. But on the other
hand I think truth is very important for our understanding of film - a
film's meaning and the logical inferences we have to make to understand a
film are inextricable from the concept of truth.
Ross
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