Code ET_M3L1b Coherence: A Valid Criterion of Truth

It is a systematic consistent explanation of all the facts of experience. Inasmuch as it considers all
facts of experience, coherence includes all the criteria of truth whenever applicable and profitable.
Whereas, consistency remains within a closed system, coherence purports to explain not only the facts
within its system, but stands prepared to explain any new fact brought to light.

Coherence requires that facts be more consistent; they must cohere together in an integrated
whole, not only compatible within themselves but with any other fact of the universe. The late Edgar S.
Brightman, an ardent proponent of the coherence criterion of truth writes: “Any judgement is true if it is
both self-consistent and coherently connected with our system of judgements as a whole.

Hegel is the originator of the Coherence Theory of Truth. Hegel’s dictum: ”The real is the rational
and the rational is the real.” For isolated facts do not exist; each is an integral part of an organic whole,
and it is precisely the reason that the truth is he whole whereas isolated parts are abstractions severed
from the concrete whole, hence never constitute the truth. Just like the jigsaw puzzle, the more pieces
a person has constructed in the formation, the more meaningful the picture becomes until the entire
picture is evident whereas abstract pieces lack significance unless related to the rest which compose the
whole. The Hegelian dictum: the truth is the whole. This is in consonance with his (Hegelian) Dialectic*
-the principal parts are thesis, synthesis, principle of negativity, position, reconciliation or sublation.

*Dialectic (logical argumentation) is “the in-dwelling tendency outwards by which the one-sidedness
and limitation of the predicates of understanding is seen in its true light, and shown to be the negation
of them.”

mbajesus/2020