Realist

3 definitions found

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

  Realist \Re"al*ist\, n. [Cf. F. r['e]aliste.]
     1. (Philos.) One who believes in realism; esp., one who
        maintains that generals, or the terms used to denote the
        genera and species of things, represent real existences,
        and are not mere names, as maintained by the nominalists.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. (Art. & Lit.) An artist or writer who aims at realism in
        his work. See {Realism}, 2.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. a person who avoids unrealistic or impractical beliefs or
        efforts. Contrasted to {idealist} or {visionary}.
        [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  realist
       n 1: a philosopher who believes that universals are real and
            exist independently of anyone thinking of them
       2: a person who accepts the world as it literally is and deals
          with it accordingly
       3: a painter who represents the world realistically and not in
          an idealized or romantic style

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

  80 Moby Thesaurus words for "realist":
     Cyrenaic, Eleatic, Epicurean, Marxian, Marxist, Megarian, Stoic,
     animist, animistic, atomistic, commonsense,
     commonsense philosopher, cosmotheistic, dialectical materialist,
     down-to-earth, earthy, eclectic, empirical,
     epistemological realist, eudaemonistic, existential, hardheaded,
     hedonic, hedonist, hedonistic, humanist, humanistic, hylomorphous,
     hylotheistic, idealistic, instrumentalist, materialist,
     materialistic, matter-of-fact, mechanist, mechanistic,
     metaphysical, monistic, natural realist, naturalist, naturalistic,
     nominalist, panlogistical, pantheistic, physicist, positivist,
     positivistic, practical, practical person, practical-minded,
     pragmatic, pragmatist, rational, rationalistic, realistic,
     reasonable, sane, scholastic, scientific, scientistic, secular,
     sensationalistic, sensible, sober-minded, sound, sound-thinking,
     straight-thinking, syncretistic, theistic, transcendentalist,
     transcendentalistic, unideal, unidealistic, unromantic,
     unsentimental, utilitarian, vitalistic, voluntarist, voluntaristic,
     worldly