Abstract:

Philosophers have struggled for centuries with sentence that make claimsabout themselves such as the "liar sentence". The following is anexample of a liar sentence:THE SENTENCE IN CAPITALS IS NOT TRUE.
The liar sentence is a threat to any theory of truth, and has been takenas evidence that the entire notion of truth and perhaps even realismhave to be rejected.In the talk I will look at this and similar sentences. In particular, Iwill consider sentences that say about themselves that they are notprovable (Gödel sentences) and sentences that say about themselves thatthey are true (truth teller sentences). I will look at consequences ofthe analysis of self-reference for the theory of truth and its paradoxesand for theGödel incompleteness phenomena.