The Tip and the Bottom. What Makes an Estimate True?

In this chapter some basic notions and recent developments in the theories of judgement and truth will be applied, as a case study, to real estate estimates in order to answer the following questions: are they descriptive or evaluative judgements? Is their truth absolute or relative to some parameters? Is their truth a matter of correspondence with objective, mind-independent facts or is it a matter of coherence with some mind-dependent standards (in the broad sense of “mind-dependent” which includes cultural and social standards)? The answers to these questions will show that real estate estimates are an interesting borderline case between descriptive and evaluative judgements, absolute and relative truth, correspondence with an objective reality and coherence with mind-dependent standards.