Realism
['rɪəlɪz(ə)m] or ['riəlɪzəm]
Definition
(noun.) the attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth.
(noun.) (philosophy) the philosophical doctrine that physical objects continue to exist when not perceived.
Edited by Barbie--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) As opposed to nominalism, the doctrine that genera and species are real things or entities, existing independently of our conceptions. According to realism the Universal exists ante rem (Plato), or in re (Aristotle).
(n.) As opposed to idealism, the doctrine that in sense perception there is an immediate cognition of the external object, and our knowledge of it is not mediate and representative.
(n.) Fidelity to nature or to real life; representation without idealization, and making no appeal to the imagination; adherence to the actual fact.
Editor: Nettie
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. The art of depicting nature as it is seen by toads. The charm suffusing a landscape painted by a mole or a story written by a measuring-worm.
Checked by Hillel
Examples
- We have in our police reports realism pushed to its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, neither fascinating nor artistic. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- Some of them are named scholasticism, sensationalism, rationalism, idealism, realism, empiricism, transcendentalism, pragmatism, etc. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- As late as 1473 an attempt was made to bind teachers of Paris by an oath to teach Realism. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Occam, Roger Bacon, these are the early precursors of a great movement in Europe away from Realism towards reality. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
Typist: Sanford