Most of us assume that science is successful because it is true. It's because the laws of physics accurately describe reality that we can travel into space and generate nuclear power. But critics argue that while seemingly obvious this is mistaken and science does not reveal the truth of the universe. Over half of the world's leading physicists agree that quantum mechanics undermines the possibility of describing reality. Philosophers and some of the world's most renowned scientists including Heisenberg and Hawking have concluded that science provides frameworks and models of the world but does not tell us how it ultimately is.

Should we give up on objective truth and our ability to uncover reality? Can we find a new theory to account for how our theories are successful, and if so, how is that theory able to justify itself? Or is it essential not only to our theories but our culture as a whole that our accounts of the world are effective because they are true?

Author of Beyond the Limits of Thought Graham Priest, University of Oxford philosopher Jessica Frazier, and post-postmodern philosopher Hilary Lawson lock horns over our ability to know reality.