Realism

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

Society and Nature: Towards a Green Social Theory

Abstract: Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Science, Social Science, Politics and the Environment: Some Unhelpful Dichotomies Biological Theory and the Environment * Social Theory and the Environment * Conclusion: Towards an Eclectic but Unified Approach * Notes 2. People, Nature and Social Theory People and Nature in Early Sociological Theory: Evolutionism as a False Lead * Tonnies: From Land and Community to Society * Modernity, Community and Human Nature: The Chicago School of Sociology * From Biologism to Functionalism * People and Environment: The Arguments of Later Marxism * Conclusion: Society, Nature and Social Theory * Notes 3. 'Nature as Man's Inorganic Body': Marx's Conceptual Framework Nature, Alienation and People: The Early Marxian Perspective * Marxism and the Environment: Continuing Developments and Debates * Marx and Engels on People and Nature: An Assessment and Comparison with Existing Environmental Analysis * Developing Marx's Approach * Notes 4. Arguments within Biology: From Neo-Darwinism to the Study of Organisms and Their Environments A Methodological Issue * The Neo-Darwinian Revolution * Socioecology: Organisms in Ecological Context * Organism and Environment: The Emergent 'New Biology' * Notes 5. 'Nature as Alive': Social Relations and Deep Mental Structures The Evolution of Mind * Biology and the Problematic Notion of 'Culture' * The Mind: Eroding the Culture-Nature Distinction * An Understanding of the Biologically Evolved Mind * Social Relations and Nature as 'Alive' * Alienation and Fetishisation: Returning to the Yanomami Case Study * 'Women as Nature': Consciousness, Natural Differences and Environmentalism * Notes 6. Spreading 'Man's Inorganic Body': Some Implications Space, Time and Modernity: Aspects of Giddens' Account * Society and Nature: Developing and Using Giddens' Analysis * Nature and the Time-Space Distanciation of Social Life * Time-Space Distanciation Combining with Alienation: The Instance of Food and Health * Time-Space Distanciation, Consumption and the Reification of 'Nature' * Notes 7. Nature Reified: A Contemporary Case Study Notes 8. Society and Nature: From Theory to Practice Realism: Some Areas of Debate * From Theory to Practice * Notes Epilogue Index

Realism, Change, and International Political Theory

Abstract: Much recent commentary on the theory of international politics has focused on the analysis of change and the continuing vitality of political realism. This paper argues that the philosophical dilemmas posed by the concern with change and by the claim to political realism are intimately related. The argument is pursued in the context of contrasting traditions of political realism, of the antithesis between structuralism and historicism in contemporary social and political theory, and of recent tendencies and controversies in the literature on neorealist theories of international politics. The paper concludes that political realism ought to be understood less as a coherent theoretical position in its own right than as the site of a great many interesting claims and metaphysical disputes. As there is no single tradition of political realism, but rather a knot of historically constituted tensions and contradictions, these tensions and contradictions might be reconstituted in a more critical and creative manner. This involves an examination of the way the core categories of international political theory depend upon a particular formulation of the relationship between identity and difference—a formulation which must be refused.

Theories of Cognition in the Later Middle Ages

Abstract: Introduction Part I. Fudamentals: 1. Immateriality and Intentionality 2. Intentionality made mysterious 3. Form and representation 4. Passivity and attention Part II. Representations and realism: 5. Are species superfluous? 6. Aquinas and direct realism 7. The veil of the species 8. Word and concept.

Magical Realism in West African Fiction

Abstract: This study contextualizes magical realism within current debates and theories of postcoloniality and examines the fiction of three of its West African pioneers: Syl Cheney-Coker of Sierra Leone, Ben Okri of Nigeria and Kojo Laing of Ghana. Brenda Cooper explores the distinct elements of the genre in a West African context, and in relation to: * a range of global expressions of magical realism, from the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez to that of Salman Rushdie * wider contemporary trends in African writing, with particular attention to how the realism of authors such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka has been connected with nationalist agendas. This is a fascinating and important work for all those working on African literature, magical realism, or postcoloniality.

Realism and constructivism in strategy research: a critical realist response to Mir and Watson

Abstract: Mir and Watson (2000) advocate that constructivism has the potential to inform strategy research. In their discussions, they compare constructivism with realism, and highlight certain alleged strengths of the former over the latter. Although their paper provides some insights, their version of constructivism is problematic and their understanding of realism is inaccurate. In this note we clarify some key issues concerning constructivism and realism. Moreover, we argue that Mir and Watson's insights can be accommodated within a critical realist framework. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.