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How does metaphysical realism understand truth?

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The Greek philosopher Plato — Realism Plato, marble portrait bust copied from an original of the 4th century bce; in the Capitoline Museums, Rome.

Metaphysical realism understands truth as a "radically nonepistemic" concept, meaning it is entirely independent of human knowledge, belief, or evidence.1

Under this view, a statement is objectively true if it corresponds to the world in a way that transcends any human capacity to verify it. Even an ideal scientific theory—one that meets all possible operational criteria for success—could, in principle, be false according to the metaphysical realist. This perspective holds that statements possess truth conditions that exist regardless of whether those conditions can ever be recognized or proven by human observers.1

This "strongly realist" conception stands in contrast to antirealist theories, such as those defended by Hilary Putnam or Michael Dummett, which argue that truth should be more closely connected to rational acceptability, evidence, or the conditions under which a statement can be justified. By asserting that truth can outstrip all possible evidence, metaphysical realism maintains a strict separation between the nature of reality and the human processes used to describe it.1