A Form of Metaphysical Realism

Abstract

There is an assumption about metaphysical realism that is well-nigh universal. Descartes and Locke were committed to it; virtually all contemporary metaphysical realists embrace it; even skeptics and antirealists accept it. The dogma is this: If one is a metaphysical realist about the external world, then one ought to be a semantic realist about (all) external-world statements. Of course metaphysical realism does not entail unqualified semantic realism. Yet it is universally assumed that if one has good reason to be an ontological realist about the external world, then one gains thereby good reason for being a semantic realist about all external-world statements. But on what grounds?