This chapter explores Williams’s empirical realism against the backdrop of William James and American New Realists such as Williams’s advisor Ralph Perry. Debates about the nature of perception as understood by philosophers in the early twentieth century are discussed and Williams’s direct realism as one theory of perception is examined. Furthermore, Williams’s use of induction and parsimony to argue for metaphysical theses such as metaphysical realism is explained, thereby revealing his methodological commitment to the empirical method. His critique of logical positivism is canvassed along with exposition of his realist alternative, which involves a discussion of his realist theories of meaning, analyticity, and the a priori. These realist theories involve a commitment to the existence of universals. Finally, his empirical conception of metaphysics is presented with a discussion of his account of the distinction between ontology and cosmology.