Realism

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

Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of Narrative

Abstract: "Ordinary Enchantments" investigates magical realism as the most important trend in contemporary international fiction, defines its characteristics and narrative techniques, and proposes a new theory to explain its significance. In the most comprehensive critical treatment of this literary mode to date, Wendy B. Faris discusses a rich array of examples from magical realist novels around the world, including the work not only of Latin American writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but also of authors like Salman Rushdie, Gunter Grass, Toni Morrison, and Ben Okri.Faris argues that by combining realistic representation with fantastic elements so that the marvelous seems to grow organically out of the ordinary, magical realism destabilizes the dominant form of realism based on empirical definitions of reality, gives it visionary power, and thus constitutes what might be called a "remystification" of narrative in the West. Noting the radical narrative heterogeneity of magical realism, the author compares its cultural role to that of traditional shamanic performance, which joins the worlds of daily life and that of the spirits. Because of that capacity to bridge different worlds, magical realism has served as an effective decolonizing agent, providing the ground for marginal voices, submerged traditions, and emergent literatures to develop and create masterpieces. At the same time, this process is not limited to postcolonial situations but constitutes a global trend that replenishes realism from within. In addition to describing what many consider to be the progressive cultural work of magical realism, Faris also confronts the recent accusation that magical realism and its study as a global phenomenon can be seen as a form of commodification and an imposition of cultural homogeneity. And finally, drawing on the narrative innovations and cultural scenarios that magical realism enacts, she extends those principles toward issues of gender and the possibility of a female element within magical realism.

Realism in Research

Abstract: Disputes in educational research over the past few decades have resulted in part from an inadequate conception of the nature of science itself. Developments in the philosophy of science have led to a new understanding–scientific realism–that has promise of resolving many longstanding dilemmas. At the core of the "standard view" of science is the incorrect Humean notion of causation, which has had devastating effects on research in the social sciences. An adequate notion of causation may provide a framework for research that is at once scientific, that incorporates the perceptions and intentions of participants, and that advances critical values such as social justice.

White Queen psychology and other essays for Alice

Abstract: Ruth Millikan's extended argument for a biological view of the study of cognition in Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories caught the attention of the philosophical community. Universally regarded as an important, even brilliant, work, its complexity and dense presentation made it difficult to plumb. This collection of essays serves both as an introduction to that much discussed volume and as an extension and application of Millikan's central and controversial themes, especially in the philosophy of psychology. The title essay, referring to the White Queen's practice of exercising her mind by believing impossible things, discusses meaning rationalism and argues that rationality is not in the head, indeed, that there is no legitimate interpretation under which logical possibility and necessity are known a priori. Nor are there any laws of rational psychology. Rationality is not a lawful occurrence but a biological norm that is effected in an integrated head-world system under biologically ideal conditions. In other essays, Millikan clarifies her views on the nature of mental representation, explores whether human thought is a product of natural selection, examines the nature of behavior as studied by the behavioral sciences, and discusses the issues of individualism in psychology, psychological explanation, indexicality in thought, what knowledge is, and the realism/antirealism debate.

Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

Abstract: This collection of writings by Mark Fisher, author of the acclaimed Capitalist Realism, argues that we are haunted by futures that failed to happen. Fisher searches for the traces of these lost futures in the work of David Peace, John Le Carre, Christopher Nolan, Joy Division, Burial and many others.

Conquest of Abundance: A Tale of Abstraction versus the Richness of Being

Abstract: A note on the editing Part one: The unfinished manuscript introduction 1 Achilles' conjecture 2 xenophanes 3 Parmenides and the logic of being interlude: On the ambiguity of interpretations 4 Brunelleschi and the invention of perspective Part Two: Essays on the manuscript's themes 1 realism and the historicity of knowledge 2 has the scientific view of the world a special status compared with other views? 3 quantum theory and our view of the world 4 realism 5 historical comments on realism 6 what reality? 7 Aristotle. Part contents.