Realism

Contemporary philosophical realism is the belief that some aspects of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality" title="Reality">reality</a> are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology" title="Ontology">ontologically</a> independent of our <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_scheme" class="mw-redirect" title="Conceptual scheme">conceptual schemes</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism" title="Idealism">perceptions</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language" title="Language">linguistic practices</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief" title="Belief">beliefs</a>, etc. Realism may be spoken of with respect to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_problem_of_other_minds" class="mw-redirect" title="The problem of other minds">other minds</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past" title="Past">past</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future" title="Future">future</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_%28metaphysics%29" title="Universal (metaphysics)">universals</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics" title="Mathematics">mathematical entities</a> (such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_numbers" class="mw-redirect" title="Natural numbers">natural numbers</a>), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality" title="Morality">moral categories</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_world" class="mw-disambig" title="Material world">material world</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought" title="Thought">thought</a>. Realism can also be promoted in an unqualified sense, in which case it asserts the mind-independent existence of the world, as opposed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_skepticism" title="Philosophical skepticism">skepticism</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism" title="Solipsism">solipsism</a>. Philosophers who profess realism often claim that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth" title="Truth">truth</a> consists in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correspondence_theory_of_truth" title="Correspondence theory of truth">correspondence</a> between cognitive representations and reality.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_realism#cite_note-1">[1]</a>

Realists tend to believe that whatever we believe now is only an approximation of reality but that the accuracy and fullness of understanding can be improved.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_realism#cite_note-2">[2]</a> In some contexts, realism is contrasted with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism" title="Idealism">idealism</a>. Today it is more usually contrasted with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-realism" title="Anti-realism">anti-realism</a>, for example in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science" title="Philosophy of science">philosophy of science</a>.