What is realism and who is a realist?

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

In philosophy, there are a huge number of different currents and teachings. All of them are designated by certain terms. People often refer to one of the most common systems of worldviews, calling themselves a pessimist, an optimist, a realist. These terms reflect the worldview of an individual or a whole group. And if everything is more or less clear with optimists and pessimists, then who is a realist?

Realism as a direction of philosophy

So who is a realist? First of all, it should be understood that such a philosophical term refers to a person who postulates the existence of a reality independent of the subject. There is a popular saying that describes the essence of this term in comparison with the above three main types of worldview. Anyone who sees the glass as half empty is a pessimist. The one who sees the glass as half full is an optimist. A realist is someone who cares more about the contents of the glass.

Three meanings of the term

Who is a realist? This is a follower of a certain philosophical trend - realism. There are three possible understandings of the latter:

1. Realism is perceived as a direction that in medieval philosophy was opposed to conceptualism and nominalism.
2. This term refers to the direction of philosophical thought in the new time, which opposes idealism. This kind of realism (epistemological) considers objective knowledge independent of the perceptions, beliefs and attitudes of individual subjects, insisting on the idea that sensory experience can provide immediate and direct access to understanding the surrounding subject of the world.
3. Modern philosophical views see realism as the opposite of anti-realism.

Naive realism

Naive realism is a point of view that is shared by most people, from the standpoint of common sense. The basic idea is that modern science absolutely describes the world. Who is a naive realist? This is a person who perceives only those categories that are confirmed by scientific knowledge.

Scientific realism

This subtype postulates the thesis of the existence of some objective truth. All scientific theories have only one goal - the discovery of truth and scientific progress. Since the theories put forward by scientists are accepted as unconditionally true, it is believed that they are the ones that adequately describe reality.

Ontological realism

This subspecies believes that the describedscientific theories, reality does not depend on theoretical assumptions and on the thinking of the subject. Ontological realism tries to answer some questions: “what are the real entities?”, “does the world exist independently of the observer?”

Epistemological realism

This view assumes that some scientific theories that are confirmed to be true are only close to the truth. What is a realist with an epistemological point of view? Such a person in his worldview and worldview tries to find the answer to the question: can there be objective true knowledge about reality and the world?

Semantic realism

This kind of popular philosophical view believes that theories are interpreted as realistic, since scientific theses point exclusively to real entities and describe reality. Who is a semantic realist? This is a person who assumes that all scientific theories try to give a perfect and true description of a reality that exists independently of the object that perceives it. Truth for such a philosopher is the correspondence between reality and its linguistic description. In particular, this approach combines all three main types of worldview, whether realist, pessimist or optimist. Only the final output differs.