ABSTRACT
Scientific realists standardly argue that our best scientific theories should be considered to be truth-like. Yet, a common challenge levelled against realists is that there is no coherent formal notion of truth-likeness, or verisimilitude. The implication is that the realist claim cannot be properly defended. This chapter reviews the truth-likeness saga. I argue, not surprisingly, that, up to now, all attempts to characterise formally the intuitive notion of truth-likeness have failed. This, however, is no reason for despair. For the intuitive notion of truthlikeness need not be formalised in order to be of use. In the final two sections of this chapter, I explain and defend the intuitions behind the realist notion of truth-likeness.
