Does the act of speaking necessitate the existence of objective moral realities? Terence Cuneo, a professor of philosophy, investigates the intersection of speech act theory and metaethics to argue for moral realism. By analyzing the normative structure inherent in communication, he posits that the rights and obligations generated during speech acts are fundamentally moral in nature and require a realist framework to be coherent.

Philosophical scholars recognize this text as a significant contribution to the debate between moral realism and anti-realism. Readers frequently note the technical density of the prose, which requires a strong background in metaethical terminology to fully grasp the author's arguments.