Examines the realists' appeals to the theorecial values, simplicity, breadth of scope, and consistency. Argues that these values do not support the sorts of inferences that realists want to draw when they note that a theory embodies these values. Instead, the theoretical values only enable us to make an ordinal ranking of competing theories. On the basis of such a ranking, we are in no position to say how close or far we are from the truth. Argues that the theoretical values do not even solve the practical problem of determining which of our current theories would most likely lead us to a better theory in the future.