 The first thing to note is that there is certainly a sense in which deflationism is consistent with the idea that truth is a norm of assertion. To illustrate this, notice (as we saw in examining truth’s putative explanatory role) that we can obtain an intuitive understanding of this idea without mentioning truth at all, so long as we focus on a particular case. Suppose that for whatever reason Mary sincerely believes that snow is green, has good evidence for this belief, and on the basis of this belief and evidence asserts that snow is green. We might say that there is a norm of assertion that implies that Mary is still open to criticism in this case. After all, since snow is not green, there must be something incorrect or defective about Mary’s assertion (and similarly for her belief). It is this incorrectness or defectiveness that the idea that truth is a norm of assertion (and belief) is trying to capture.