This type of theory attempts to posit a relationship between thoughts or statements on one hand, and things or facts on the other.
Correspondence theory is a traditional model which goes back at least to some of the ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle.
[4] A classic example of correspondence theory is the statement by the medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas: "Veritas est adaequatio rei et intellectus" ("Truth is the adequation of things and intellect"), which Aquinas attributed to the ninth-century Neoplatonist Isaac Israeli.
[3][5][6] Correspondence theory was either explicitly or implicitly embraced by most of the early modern thinkers, including René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant.
[8] In late modern philosophy, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling espoused the correspondence theory.
[10] In contemporary Continental philosophy, Edmund Husserl defended the correspondence theory.
[11] In contemporary analytic philosophy, Bertrand Russell,[12] Ludwig Wittgenstein (at least in his early period),[13] J. L. Austin,[14] and Karl Popper[15][16] defended the correspondence theory.
[18] Historically, most advocates of correspondence theories have been metaphysical realists; that is, they believe that there is a world external to the minds of all humans.