The concluding chapter summarizes the specific ontological claims defended in the latter part of the book, and demonstrates how thinking about truthmaking can help defend and articulate a variety of metaphysical views. The view on offer falls somewhere in the middle of the metaphysical spectrum: it is more thoroughly committed when it comes to properties and the past, but less so with respect to mathematics and fictional discourse. As a result, it is hoped to show that concern for truthmaking itself does not lead to across-the-board realism, and can be hospitable toward certain forms of nominalism or antirealism.

This chapter demonstrates how thinking about truthmakers can bring some clarity to the ongoing debate concerning the ontological status of mathematical entities, and advances one position on the topic. It begins with what is nowadays the most familiar argument in the ontology of mathematics: the indispensability argument. Close inspection of it reveals that the notion of truthmaking is indeed playing a role, and that by thinking about indispensability and truthmaking in tandem, both ideas emerge with greater clarity. Focusing on indispensability will shed light on what the ontological stakes are in the overall debate, so the second section presents what is seen to be the most tenable ontological positions. It then offers a personal (rather deflationary) contribution to the truthmaking question about mathematics, and concludes by comparing and contrasting that view with a recent brand of mathematical trivialism.