Truthmaker explanations

This paper is a fresh attempt to articulate the role of a theory of truthmakers. We argue that truthmaker theory constitutes a cornerstone of good methodology in metaphysics, but that a conflation of truthmaker theory with the theory of truth has been responsible for certain excesses associated with truthmaker-based approaches in the recent literature. We show that truthmaker theory retains its appeal as an instrument of metaphysical inquiry even when we agree with (or at least remain neutral about) the sorts of deflationist doctrines put forward by Ayer, Quine, Field and Horwich, and we argue further that its underlying intuitions become clearer when we separate them from a theory of truth, and above all from the attempt to provide a definition of truth.