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7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 2. Realism

[commitment to the existence of a reality outside our minds]

41 ideas
Reasoning needs to cut nature accurately at the joints [Plato]
God assures me of the existence of external things [Locke]
If experience is just a dream, it is still real enough if critical reason is never deceived [Leibniz]
The strongest criterion that phenomena show reality is success in prediction [Leibniz]
The division of nature into matter makes distinct appearances, and that presupposes substances [Leibniz]
The only indications of reality are agreement among phenomena, and their agreement with necessities [Leibniz]
Kant is read as the phenomena being 'contrained' by the noumenon, or 'free-floating' [Talbot on Kant]
Consciousness is not entirely representational, because there are pains, and the self [Schulze, by Pinkard]
Kant's thing-in-itself is just an abstraction from our knowledge; things only exist for us [Hegel, by Bowie]
Hegel believe that the genuine categories reveal things in themselves [Hegel, by Houlgate]
For me the objective thing-in-itself is the will [Schopenhauer]
Realism is basic to the scientific method [Peirce]
Realism is the belief that there is something in the being of things corresponding to our reasoning [Peirce]
There may be no reality; it's just our one desperate hope of knowing anything [Peirce]
We can't be realists, because we don't know what being is [Nietzsche]
We can only distinguish self from non-self if there is an inflexible external reality [Colvin]
Common-sense realism rests on our interests and practical life [Colvin]
If two people perceive the same object, the object of perception can't be in the mind [Russell]
Quantum theory shows that exact science does not need dogmatic realism [Heisenberg]
Unfortunately for realists, modern logic cannot say that some fact exists [Sommers]
Realism is a theory, which explains the convergence of science and the success of language [Putnam]
Metaphysical realism is committed to there being one ultimate true theory [Putnam]
Realists believe truth is correspondence, independent of humans, is bivalent, and is unique [Putnam]
Realism is just the application of two-valued semantics to sentences [Dummett]
Dummett saw realism as acceptance of bivalence, rather than of mind-independent entities [Dummett, by Potter]
Metaphysical realists are committed to all unambiguous statements being true or not true [Dummett]
Philosophers should not presume reality, but only invoke it when language requires it [Dummett]
In the realist view, the real external world explains how it (and perceptions of it) are possible [Williams,B]
Kripke's metaphysics (essences, kinds, rigidity) blocks the slide into sociology [Kripke, by Ladyman/Ross]
Realist Conceptualists accept that our interests affect our concepts [Wiggins]
Conceptualism says we must use our individuating concepts to grasp reality [Wiggins]
Realism says that most perceived objects exist, and have some of their perceived properties [Dancy,J]
How does a direct realist distinguish a building from Buckingham Palace? [Lockwood]
To explain object qualities, primary qualities must be more than mere sources of experience [McGinn]
Realism says some of our concepts 'cut nature at the joints' [Heil]
Modest realism says there is a reality; the presumptuous view says we can accurately describe it [Mumford]
Realists believe in independent objects, correspondence, and fallibility of all theories [Button]
For realists it is analytic that truths are grounded in the world [Cameron]
Realism says a discourse is true or false, and some of it is true [Cameron]
Realism says truths rest on mind-independent reality; truthmaking theories are about which features [Cameron]
Indirect realists are cautious about the manifest image, and prefer the scientific image [Ingthorsson]