Realism

About: Realism is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 10799 publications have been published within this topic receiving 175785 citations.

Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century

Abstract: Contents: Chapter 1: Primitivism and the 'Modern' by Gill Perry Introduction: Primitivism in art-historical debate Part 1: 'The Going Away' - a preparation for the 'modern' 'Clogs and granite' Brittany and Pont-Aven 'Pillaging the savages of Oceania': Gauguin and Tahid Primitivism and Kulturkritik: Worpswede in the 1890s Part 2: The decorative, the expressive and the primitive The decorative and the 'culte de la vie': Matisse and Fauvism The expressive and the Expressionist Conclusion References Chapter 2: Realism and Ideologue An introduction to semiotics and cubism by Francis Frascina Introduction Representation: language, signs, realism Art and semiotics Realism, ideology and the 'discursive' in Cubism Artistic subcultures: signs and meaning Conclusion References Chapter 3: Abstraction by Charles Harrison Abstraction, figuration and representation On interpretation Autonomy Kazirnir Malevich Piet Mondrian References.

Messy Morality: The Challenge of Politics

Abstract: 1. Morality, moralism, and realism 2. Moralistic strictures and political reality-further quandaries 3. Concerning ideals 4. Engagement in evil: politics, dirty hands, and corruption 5. Politics and lying

Realism, relativism, and constructivism

Abstract: This paper gives a critical evaluation of the philosophical presuppositions and implications of two current schools in the sociology of knowledge: the Strong Programme of Bloor and Barnes; and the Constructivism of Latour and Knorr-Cetina. Bloor's arguments for his externalist symmetry thesis (i.e., scientific beliefs must always be explained by social factors) are found to be incoherent or inconclusive. At best, they suggest a Weak Programme of the sociology of science: when theoretical preferences in a scientific community, SC, are first internally explained by appealing to the evidence, e, and the standards or values, V, accepted in SC, then a sociologist may sometimes step in to explain why e and V were accepted in SC. Latour's story about the ‘social construction’ of facts in scientific laboratories is found to be misleading or incredible. The idea that scientific reality is an artifact turns out to have some interesting affinities with classical pragmatism, instrumentalism, phenomenology, and internal realism. However, the constructivist account of theoretical entities in terms of negotiation and social consensus is less plausible than the alternative realist story which explains consensus by the preexistence of mind-independent real entities. The author concludes that critical scientific realism, developed with the concept of truthlikeness, is compatible with the thesis that scientific beliefs or knowledge claims may be relative to various types of cognitive and practical interests. However, the realist denies, with good reasons, the stronger type of relativism which takes reality and truth to be relative to persons, groups, or social interests.

New York by Gas-Light and Other Urban Sketches

Abstract: First published in 1850, "New York by Gas-Light" explores the seamy side of the newly emerging metropolis: 'the festivities of prostitution, the orgies of pauperism, the haunts of theft and murder, the scenes of drunkenness and beastly debauch, and all the sad realities that go to make up the lower stratum - the underground story - of life in New York!' The author of this lively and fascinating little book, which both attracted and offended large numbers of readers in Victorian America, was George G. Foster, reporter for Horace Greeley's influential "New York Tribune", social commentator, poet, and man about town. Foster drew on his daily and nightly rambles through the city's streets and among the characters of the urban demi-monde to produce a sensationalized but extraordinarily revealing portrait of New York at the moment it was emerging as a major metropolis. Reprinted here with sketches from two of Foster's other books, "New York by Gas-Light" will be welcomed by students of urban social history, popular culture, literature, and journalism. Editor Stuart M. Blumin has provided a penetrating introductory essay that sets Foster's life and work in the contexts of the growing city, the development of the mass-distribution publishing industry, the evolving literary genre of urban sensationalism, and the wider culture of Victorian America. This is an important reintroduction to a significant but neglected work, a prologue to the urban realism that would flourish later in the fiction of Stephen Crane, the painting of George Bellows, and the journalism of Jacob Riis.

Realism, Idealism and International Politics: A Reinterpretation

Abstract: This book provides a re-interpretation of the terms "realism" and "idealism" in international relations, and a critical examination of key figures in international theory: Hans Morgenthau, Kenneth Waltz and Hedley Bull. Morgenthau and Bull are traditionally regarded as the "Grand Theorists" of realism, but this book argues, contrary to conventional wisdom, that they could more properly be categorized as idealists. Griffiths' contention is that, in addition to imagination, nostalgia and complacency are also forms of political idealism. He argues that Morgenthau's work suffers from the shortcomings of "nostalgic idealism". In contrast, Hedley Bull's analysis of international society is based on a more realistic understanding of world politics.