Introduction

Abstract

The aims of the book are to bring nihilism into debates over truth and paradox, and to show that a nihilist approach to truth is a serious contender. By nihilism is meant a theory that denies the existence of some sort of thing; in the context of debates about truth, nihilism is the view that nothing is true. Some have taken the theory to be easy to refute—but the easy refutations do not touch more sophisticated versions of the theory. The main grounds for taking the view seriously are the elegant solutions it provides to a wide range of paradoxes involving truth, and its epistemological superiority to theories that posit truths. Making that case is the main task of the book. The book is also a challenge to deflationism. By showing that we can well do without truths, it is argued that deflationism is actually too lavish a position.