Philosophical realism

Philosophical realism – usually not treated as a position of its own but as a stance towards other subject matters – is the view that a certain kind of thing (ranging widely from abstract objects like numbers to moral statements to the physical world itself) has mind-independent existence, i.e. that it exists even in the absence of any mind perceiving it or that its existence is not just a mere appearance in the eye of the beholder.[1][2][3][4] This includes a number of positions within epistemology and metaphysics which express that a given thing instead exists independently of knowledge, thought, or understanding.[5][6] This can apply to items such as the physical world, the past and future, other minds, and the self, though may also apply less directly to things such as universals, mathematical truths, moral truths, and thought itself. However, realism may also include various positions which instead reject metaphysical treatments of reality entirely.[7][8]

Realism can also be a view about the properties of reality in general, holding that reality exists independent of the mind, as opposed to non-realist views (like some forms of skepticism and solipsism) which question the certainty of anything beyond one's own mind. Philosophers who profess realism often claim that truth consists in a correspondence between cognitive representations and reality.[9]

Realists tend to believe that whatever we believe now is only an approximation of reality but that the accuracy and fullness of understanding can be improved.[10] In some contexts, realism is contrasted with idealism. Today it is more often contrasted with anti-realism, for example in the philosophy of science.[11][12]

The oldest use of the term "realism" appeared in medieval scholastic interpretations and adaptations of ancient Greek philosophy.

The position was also held among many ancient Indian philosophies.[13]

  1. ^ Craig, Edward (1996). "Realism and antirealism". Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge.
  2. ^ Miller, Alexander (2019). "Realism". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  3. ^ Honderich, Ted (2005). "realism and anti-realism". The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford University Press.
  4. ^ Elkana, Yehuda (1978). "Two-Tier-Thinking: Philosophical Realism and Historical Relativism". Social Studies of Science. 8 (3): 309–326. doi:10.1177/030631277800800304. ISSN 0306-3127. JSTOR 284907.
  5. ^ Khlentzos, Drew (2016). "Challenges to Metaphysical Realism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.).
  6. ^ Kasavin, Ilya (2015-10-02). "Philosophical Realism: The Challenges for Social Epistemologists". Social Epistemology. 29 (4): 431–444. doi:10.1080/02691728.2014.971913. ISSN 0269-1728.
  7. ^ Conway, Daniel (1999). "Beyond Truth and Appearance: Nietzsche's Emergent Realism". In Babich, Babette E. (ed.). Nietzsche, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 204. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 109–122. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-2428-9_9. ISBN 978-90-481-5234-6.
  8. ^ Petrov, Kristian (2019). "'Strike out, right and left!': a conceptual-historical analysis of 1860s Russian nihilism and its notion of negation". Stud East Eur Thought. 71 (2): 73–97. doi:10.1007/s11212-019-09319-4. S2CID 150893870.
  9. ^ The statement veritas est adaequatio rei et intellectus ("truth is the adequation of thought and thing") was defended by Thomas Aquinas.
  10. ^ Blackburn p. 188
  11. ^ Ronen, Ruth (1995). "Philosophical Realism and Postmodern Antirealism". Style. 29 (2): 184–200. ISSN 0039-4238. JSTOR 42946277.
  12. ^ Boyd, Richard. "Realism, approximate truth, and philosophical method". University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy.
  13. ^ Sinha, Jadunath Indian Realism p. 15. Routledge, 2024.