ABSTRACT
Some philosophers like to call themselves realists, and some like to call themselves antirealists. An increasing number, I suspect, wish to turn their backs on the whole issue.1 Their strengths include those of naturalism, here counseling us that there is none except a natural science of human beings. From this it follows that there is no “first philosophy” lying behind (for instance) physics, or anthropology, enabling the philosopher to know how much of the world is “our construction” (antirealism) or, on the contrary, “independent of us” (realism).
