truth tables, but not the laws of classical logic, because intuitionistic logic allows propositions to be other than true or false. Secondly, to be able to apply truth tables to describe a connective depends upon distributivity: a truth table is a disjunction of conjunctive possibilities, and the validity of the exercise depends upon the truth of the whole being a consequence of the bivalence of the propositions, which is true only if the principle of distributivity applies. Hence Putnam cannot embrace realism without embracing classical logic, and hence his argument to endorse quantum logic because of realism about quanta is a hopeless case. Dummett's argument is all the more interesting because he is not a proponent of classical logic. His argument for the connection between realism and classical logic is part of a wider argument to suggest that, just as the existence of particular class of entities may be a matter of dispute, so a disputation about the objective existence of such entities is also a matter of dispute. Consequently intuitionistic logic is privileged over classical logic, when it comes to disputation concerning phenomena whose objective existence is a matter of controversy. Thus the question, "Is Logic Empirical?," for Dummett, leads naturally into the dispute over realism and anti-realism, one of the deepest issues in modern metaphysics. Notes Cognitive science literature Logic literature Epistemology literature Contemporary philosophical literature Empiricism