Realism1. (n.) 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).
2. (n.) 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.
3. (n.) Fidelity to nature or to real life; representation without idealization, and making no appeal to the imagination; adherence to the actual fact.
Thesaurus Entries
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