realism

B2 · Upper Intermediate Uncountable noun

n. a style of painting or writing that shows people and things as they really are in everyday life.

n. an aesthetic style or movement that aims to represent subject matter truthfully, avoiding speculative fiction or exotic supernatural elements.

“The author is famous for the gritty realism of her novels about city life.”

“Nineteenth-century realism in painting sought to depict the mundane lives of the working class with the same dignity previously reserved for historical or religious subjects.”

C1 · Advanced Uncountable noun Science Academic · Technical

n. the belief that the world and physical objects exist even if no one is there to see them.

n. the ontological position that an external reality exists independently of the mind, observation, or conceptual schemes.

“Scientific realism suggests that the atoms described by physics are real things.”

“The debate between realism and instrumentalism remains central to the philosophy of science, particularly regarding the status of unobservable entities in theoretical physics.”

C2 · Proficiency Uncountable noun Religion Academic · Formal

n. the old idea that general concepts, like 'beauty' or 'redness', are real things that exist on their own.

n. the medieval or Platonic doctrine that universals exist independently of the particular objects that manifest them.

“In the Middle Ages, scholars argued about realism and whether general ideas truly exist.”

“The conflict between realism and nominalism shaped much of scholastic theology, as thinkers grappled with the nature of abstract properties and their relation to the physical world.”