Philosophical realism

arises from this position on Boethius is that medieval philosophers, Boethius included, were very concerned with the exact phrasing of questions and ideas given how teaching was done during this time so would be odd if Boethius phased a question that he himself was going to solve in a way that did not accurately reflect the point he was attempting to portray. {para} While it was somewhat ambiguous if Boethius would be more properly classified as a realist or a conceptualist by looking at the problem and analyzing what exactly is being said by Boethius. We know that Boethius choose his wording very careful, as was the norm, so by looking at how he phrases the Problem we can be informed to the answer of our search. Most counter claims to realism are not based on the wording used by Boethius so are likely to fully encapsulate his…

If God is all powerful, how does one argue against him? First, God’s authority needs to be taken into question. If all is not as God says it is, then reality is whatever one makes of it. Milton tackles this question in Paradise Lost. In Christian tradition Satan is the first to go against God. Milton’s Satan needs to make an appealing argument to convince others to follow his lead. He does this by championing a world view opposite of God’s. In some ways, Satan is the first idealist to counter…

faithful representation of reality’ or ‘verisimilitude’, realism is a literary technique practised by many schools of writing. Although strictly speaking, realism is a technique, it also denotes a particular kind of subject matter, especially the representation of middle class life. In arts and literature, realism may be defined as an attempt to represent life truthfully and also avoiding all such literary techniques which make life seem implausible,…

What is realism? According to Peter Brooks, realism can take up various forms: realism as the visual, or realism as the ordinary aspects of life, or realism as the ugliest aspects of life, as long the message is conveyed. Which message? That of reality. What is reality then? “We have a thirst for reality, which is curious, since we have too much reality, more than we can bear.” (Brooks, 1). Do we in fact crave reality that much? But then as he explains, what we crave is not actually reality.…

The world is not black and white. There is rarely an absolute and definitive reason why a country ventures onto the lands of an opposing state. There are a number of factors that can come out to play when analyzing a countries imperialist nature. In the article “Explaining Imperialism: The State of the Art as reflected in Three Theories”, Rajan Menon and John R. Oneal interpret the discourse behind imperialism and formulate three theories; the realist theory, the socialist theory of capitalism…

Discovery can encompass the many experiences of discovering something for the first time or rediscovering something that has been lost, forgotten or concealed. These discoveries can change an individual’s perspective of human nature and the wider world. The theme of discovery is projected throughout the play, ‘The Tempest’ (1610), by William Shakespeare and the novel, ‘The Perks of being a Wallflower’ (1999), by Stephen Chbosky. The Tempest, written in the Jacobean era and reflecting aspects and…

Magical realism has many elements. One of the most common ones are the elements of the magical and the mundane interwoven seamlessly, the story is set in an otherwise ordinary world with familiar historical and/or cultural realities, and objects and setting within the story taking lives of their own in a way that is ordinary to the characters. These characteristics can be found in the following stories. Magical realism is the blend between reality and the extraordinary. Both texts, “A Very Old…

Realism is a broad paradigm in which it is a view of international politics that stresses its competitive and conflictual side. Realists often trace their intellectual roots to Thucydides classic account of Peloponnesian war in the fifth century B.C. At their core realists’ theories have a pragmatic approach to international relations describing the world as it is not as it ought to be. Realist believe that power is the currency of international politics. Great powers, the main actors in the…

hockey culture, especially in Quebec. Some Canadian films also stick to their historical traditions to be considered specifically Canadian. This would mean they feature either of the early Canadian traditions: documentary realism or the avant-garde/experimentalist. Inclusion of these traditions generally leads to a film being seen as more Canadian. Because of the reasons above, I believe that Canadian films have historically stuck to being classified as “not American” and actively aim to…

Realism and Liberalism, two political schools of thought contend two radically different behaviours towards a state's neighbors. Most of the behaviours acted upon, are best defined by liberalist and realist ideological principles. But history has shown that liberalist and realist nation states behaviour differently to other states. How can an anarchic international society allow such behaviour? According to Alexander Wendt, argues that anarchy is a political concept that states manipulates to…