REALISM AND TRUTH

In this provocative and wideranging book Michael Devitt argues for a thoroughgoing realism about the commonsense and scientific physical world and for a correspondence notion of truth Furthermore he argues that contrary to received opinion the metaphysical question of realism is distinct from and prior to any semantic question about truth The book makes incisive responses to Putnam Dummett van Fraassen and other major antirealists The new afterword includes an extensive discussion of the metaphysics of nonfactualism and new thoughts on the need for truth and on the determination of reference