realism

An inclination toward literal truth and pragmatism.

The representation in art or literature of objects, actions, or social conditions as they actually are, without idealization or presentation in abstract form.

The scholastic doctrine, opposed to nominalism, that universals exist independently of their being thought.

The modern philosophical doctrine, opposed to idealism, that physical objects exist independently of their being perceived.

The doctrine of the realist, in any of the senses of that word. See especially realist, n., 1.

In literature and art, the representation of what is real in fact; the effort to exhibit the literal reality and unvarnished truth of things; treatment of characters, objects, scenes, events, circumstances, etc., according to actual truth or appearance, or to intrinsic probability, without selection or preference over the ugly of what is beautiful or admirable: opposed to idealism and romanticism. Compare naturalism.

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).

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.