Realisms

Realism, Realist or Realistic are terms that describe any manifestation of philosophical realism, the belief that reality exists independently of observers, whether in philosophy itself or in the applied arts and sciences. In this broad sense it is frequently contrasted with Idealism.

Realism in the arts concerns the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life. Political realism is a dominant school of thinking within the international relations discipline that prioritizes national interest and security over ideology, moral concerns and social reconstructions. In ethics moral realism takes the view that there are objective moral values. Scientific realism is the view that the world described by science is the real world and mathematical realism a branch of philosophy of mathematics.

Philosophical realism

Main article: philosophical realism

Realism as a philosophy of mind is rooted in the "common sense" philosophy of perception known as naive realism, which has been developed as "direct" realism when distinguished from representative realism, the view that we cannot perceive the external world directly. Critical realism is the philosophy of perception concerned with the accuracy of human sense-data. In epistomology realism is accounted a subcategory of objectivism. Hyper-realism or Hyperreality, on the other hand, doubts the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy. Transcendental realism is a concept implying that individuals have a perfect understanding of the limitations of their own minds.

In metaphysics Platonic realism describes a philosophy articulated by Plato, positing the existence of universals. Moderate realism is a position holding that there is no realm where universals exist. New realism denotes a school of early 20th-century epistemology rejecting epistemological dualism and Organic realism or the Philosophy of Organism, describes the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead, now known as process philosophy. Australian realism or Australian materialism is a 20th Century school of philosophy in Australia. Truth-value link realism is a metaphysical concept explaining how to understand parts of the world that are apparently cognitively inaccessible.

Cornell realism is a view in meta-ethics associated with the work of Richard Boyd and others.Quasi-realism is an expressivist meta-ethical theory which asserts that though our moral claims are projectivist we understand them in realist terms. In religious philosophy Christian Realism was advocated by Reinhold Niebuhr and mystical realism, a philosophy concerning the nature of the divine, was advanced by Nikolai Berdyaev. Constructive realism and entity realism are philosophical positions within scientific realism. Modal realism is a philosophy propounded by David Lewis, that possible worlds are as real as the actual world

Scientific realism

Scientific realism is, at the most general level, the view that the world described by science (perhaps ideal science) is the real world, as it is, independent of what we might take it to be. Within philosophy of science, it is often framed as an answer to the question "how is the success of science to be explained?" The debate over what the success of science involves centers primarily on the status of unobservable entities apparently talked about by scientific theories. Generally, those who are scientific realists assert that one can make reliable claims about unobservables (viz., that they have the same ontological status) as observables, as opposed to instrumentalism.

Scientific realism involves two basic positions. First, it is a set of claims about the features of an ideal scientific theory; an ideal theory is the sort of theory science aims to produce. Second, it is the commitment that science will eventually produce theories very much like an ideal theory and that science has done pretty well thus far in some domains. It is important to note that one might be a scientific realist regarding some sciences while not being a realist regarding others. For example, one might hold realist attitudes toward physics, chemistry and biology, and not toward economics, psychology and sociology.

Socio-political realism

Legal realism is the theory that law is made by human beings and thus subject to human imperfections. Left realism and Right Realism are contrasting theories about the prevention and control of crime. Classical political realism holds that it is fundamentally the nature of man that pushes states and individuals to act in a way that places interests over ideologies while Liberal realism or the "English school of international relations theory" centres upon the theory that there exists a 'society of states'. Defensive realism is a theory that anarchy on the world stage causes states to increase their security while offensive realism takes the view that states will exploit opportunities to expand whenever they are presented. Neorealism or structural realism is theory that international structures act as a constraint on state behavior. Post-realism sees international realism as a particular rhetoric of international relations while Subaltern realism concerns the theory that Third World states are more concerned with short term gains.

Artistic realism

Main article: Realism (arts)

Realism in theatre denotes any movement towards greater fidelity to real life, as in Kitchen sink realism, an English cultural movement in the 1950s and 1960s that concentrated on contemporary social realism, or Poetic realism, a film movement in France in the 1930s that used heightened aestheticism. In the visual arts the term denotes any approach that depicts what the eye can see, such as in American realism, a turn of the 20th century idea in arts, Classical Realism, an artistic movement in late 20th Century that valued beauty and artistic skill. Literary realism particularly denotes a 19th century literary movement. Neorealism is a movement emphasising realism in cinema and literature while the New Realism is an artistic movement founded in 1960 by Pierre Restany and Yves Klein. Romantic realism is an aesthetic art term popularized by writer/philosopher Ayn Rand. Aesthetic Realism is a philosophy founded by Eli Siegel.

Forms of political realism in the arts have included Nazi heroic realism or the art of the third Reich, a style of propaganda art associated with Nazi Germany, Social realism, an artistic movement which depicts working class activities, and Socialist realism, a style of propaganda art associated with Communism.

Photorealism is a genre of painting that resembles photography, Hyperrealism (painting) resembles high resolution photography while Pseudorealism, is a term coined by American film critics to describe films in which digital unreal images are created and amalgamated with regular scenes thereby creating an illusion that is difficult to distinguish from reality, or a genre of art initiated by Indian artist Devajyoti Ray where reality is approached via abstraction Surrealism and Magic realism are artistic genres in which magical or impossible elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting.

Miscellaneous

• Tactical realism, a genre of combat simulations in computer gaming
• Realists, a typeface in VOX-ATypI classification
• Realism (Steril album), a 2006 album by the German electronic band Steril
• Realism (The Magnetic Fields album), a 2010 album by The Magnetic Fields

Other fields

• Depressive realism, a theory that individuals suffering from clinical depression have a more accurate view of reality
• Ethnographic realism, a writing style, in anthropology, which narrates the author's experiences and observations as if they were first-hand

See also

• Anti-realism
• Pseudorealism
• Magic realism
• Fantastic Realism (disambiguation)
• Irrealism (disambiguation)