Dummett’s anti-realism

Abstract

Dummett's argument against realism about the physical world rests on three premises: (a) the identification of the realism dispute with a dispute about truth conditions; (b) the identification of the latter dispute with one about the competent speaker's understanding; and (c) the claim that this understanding is verificationist. the author argues that dummett gives (a) little support and that it is false. dummett conflates two versions of (b). one is trivial, but the other is based on the popular and, it is argued, false assumption that competence consists in knowledge of truth conditions. (c) depends on a behaviourist psychology, a positivist epistemology, and a description theory of reference, all of which are false. (edited)