Realism

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Realism \Re"al*ism\ (r[=e]"al*[i^]z'm), n. [Cf. F. r['e]alisme.]
     1. (Philos.)
        (a) 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).
        (b) 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.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Art & Lit.) Fidelity to nature or to real life;
        representation without idealization, and making no appeal
        to the imagination; adherence to the actual fact.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. the practise of assessing facts and the probabilities of
        the consequences of actions in an objective manner;
        avoidance of unrealistic or impractical beliefs or
        efforts. Contrasted to {idealism}, {self-deception},
        {overoptimism}, {overimaginativeness}, or {visionariness}.
        [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  realism
       n 1: the attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring
            practicality and literal truth [syn: {pragmatism}]
       2: (philosophy) the philosophical doctrine that physical object
          continue to exist when not perceived [syn: {naive realism}]
       3: the state of being actual or real; "the reality of his
          situation slowly dawned on him" [syn: {reality}, {realness}]
          [ant: {unreality}]
       4: an artistic movement in 19th century France; artists and
          writers strove for detailed realistic and factual
          description [syn: {naturalism}]
       5: (philosophy) the philosophical doctrine that abstract
          concepts exist independent of their names [syn: {Platonism}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  81 Moby Thesaurus words for "realism":
     Marxism, absolute realism, animalism, artlessness, atomism,
     authenticity, behaviorism, bona fideness, commonsense realism,
     dialectical materialism, down-to-earthness, earthiness,
     earthliness, empiricism, epiphenomenalism, freedom from illusion,
     genuineness, hardheadedness, health, historical materialism,
     honesty, hylomorphism, hylotheism, hylozoism, inartificiality,
     lack of feelings, legitimacy, lifelikeness, literalism, literality,
     literalness, materialism, matter-of-factness, mechanism,
     natural realism, naturalism, naturalness, naturism, new realism,
     normalcy, normality, normalness, order, photographic realism,
     physicalism, physicism, positive philosophy, positivism,
     practical-mindedness, practicality, practicalness, pragmaticism,
     pragmatism, propriety, rationality, realness, reasonableness,
     regularity, representative realism, saneness, scientism,
     secularism, sensibleness, sincerity, sober-mindedness,
     substantialism, temporality, true-to-lifeness, truth to nature,
     unadulteration, unaffectedness, unfictitiousness, unidealism,
     unromanticalness, unsentimentality, unspeciousness, unspuriousness,
     unsyntheticness, verisimilitude, wholesomeness, worldliness
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  REALISM, n.  The art of depicting nature as it is seem by toads.  The
  charm suffusing a landscape painted by a mole, or a story written by a
  measuring-worm.