Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 November 2010
ABSTRACT: Cheryl Misak has offered a pragmatic argumentagainst a position she calls “scientifictranscendentalism.” Scientific transcendentalists hold that truthis something different from what would be believed at the end of inquiry;more specifically, they adhere to a correspondence theory of truth. Misakthinks scientific transcendentalists thereby undermine the connectionbetween truth and inquiry, for (a) pragmatically speaking, it adds nothingto truth and inquiry to ask whether what would be the results ofsufficiently rigorous inquiry are really true and (b) they can only acceptit as an article of faith that inquiry leads us to truth. I defend“scientific transcendentalism” againstMisak’s objections.