Issue Of Realism Research Articles

Disrupting Dichotomies, Dismantling Hegemonies: Studying Caste Reality in Fiction Through Omprakash Valmiki’s Amma and Other Stories

In the Hindi belt, Dalit literature has taken full shape in the post-Ambedkarite and post-Mandal Commission moments, making this literature layered with the understanding of caste, caste politics and its subtleties, with the central question revolving around the issue of realism. The genre of Dalit fiction transcends the societal and literary boundaries that are guided by hegemonic forces and lifts the cloak of invisibility from the ‘other’. It has the potential to disrupt the dichotomy between the centre and the periphery. By undertaking a critical study of Omprakash Valmiki’s anthology Amma and Other Stories, published in 2008, this article is an attempt to locate the creative and liberating power of Dalit fiction that is seamlessly interwoven with reality. Primarily placed in the rural and urban areas of the state of Uttar Pradesh, Valmiki’s writing situates the Dalit reality directly in front of the readers, all the while challenging the representation and prominent discourse of the Hindi literary tradition. It is in the context of realism that this article focuses on the new kind of realism brought in by Dalit fiction and the revolutionary inversion undertaken by it, which subverts and dismantles the hegemonic traditions of society and literature.

Theology, Religious Studies, and Philosophy of Religion as Humanistic Disciplines: Critical Reflections on Realism

This metaphilosophical paper discusses the nature of the philosophy of religion as an academic discipline. It may seem self-evident that the philosophy of religion is one of the humanities – along with neighboring fields of research within theology and religious studies – but it may also be argued that this is not obvious at all, as philosophical investigation can study the way the world is at the fundamental metaphysical level. Philosophers of religion, in particular, may claim to “directly” discuss the question of God’s existence vs. non-existence. The paper argues that settling the metaphilosophical question about the nature of the philosophy of religion presupposes considering the underlying issue of realism. From a transcendental-pragmatist perspective, the philosophy of religion is a humanistic discipline, but this cannot be non-circularly demonstrated to those presupposing metaphysical realism.

To Split a Head in Two and Pop Out Eyeballs: On the Plausibility of Two Injuries in the Iliad

The goal of the present paper is to show the plausibility of two groups of injuries in the Iliad, a skull “split in two” (Il. 16.412–14, 16.578–80, 20.386–87) and the famous popping out of the eyeballs of two warriors hit with a stone in the face (Il. 13.614–18, 16.733–42). Each type of wound is studied by contrasting the descriptions in the poem with current medical research. The conclusions reflect on the issue of realism in the Homeric poems and the impact that the plausibility of the studied wounds have on it.

Review: Irish Literature in Transition, 1830–1880, edited by Matthew Campbell

Review: <i>Irish Literature in Transition, 1830–1880</i>, edited by Matthew Campbell

In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante

Reviewed by: In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writingby Elena Ferrante Enrica Maria Ferrara Elena Ferrante In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and WritingTrans. Ann Goldstein. New York. Europa Editions. 2022. 112 pages. elena ferrante's new book, In the Margins, is an exciting reading experience reminiscent of captivating nonfictional works such as Italo Calvino's Six Memos for the Next Millennium. It confirms that the Italian writer's global success stems from her ability to combine craftmanship—perhaps developed in that (often disregarded) hotbed of creative writing talents that is literary translation—and formal knowledge of the classics; independent research of noncanonical stories with the unbridled flow of an inspired writing that tends to spill out of the margins. In the Marginscomprises four essays: "Pain and Pen," "Aquamarine," "Histories, I," and "Dante's Rib." The first essay, which sets the tone for the collection and explains its evocative title, illustrates the author's struggle with two impulses, which she identifies as separate styles of writing: "the first compliant, the second impetuous." The first style abides by the rules dictated by authority—be it of teachers, editors, publishers, audiences—that requires us to stay within the set margins of what constitutes correct and beautiful expression; the other is vehement and unruly. Ferrante seems to be caught by surprise when the second mode manifests itself. This tends to happen because women writers are used to censoring their sensibility and training themselves to work according to set rules. To write like men, women struggle to hear their own voices. The account Ferrante gives us about the time in which she felt "becoming male yet at the same time remaining female," therefore "invisible," is poignant. What it really takes is for a woman to recognize her own value, escape her "abject" destiny, and create "a garment of words sewn with a pain of her own and a pen of her own." Paraphrasing a poem by fifteenth-century writer Gaspara Stampa, and corroborating her argument with examples from Virginia Woolf's A Writer's Diaryand Samuel Beckett's The Unnamable, Ferrante illustrates how hard it is to keep the two kinds of writing in balance. In the second thought-provoking essay, "Aquamarine," the author tackles the thorny issue of realism. Can we write reality as it is? We certainly can, Ferrante initially thought. But then she realized that the meaning of every object depends on its interactions with other objects and people. A beautiful aquamarine ring, belonging to the author's mother, is used to exemplify her reasoning: "the aquamarine was changeable, part of a changing reality, a changing me." Ferrante fans will be reminded of the bracelet in The Lying Life of Adults, which seems to possess magic powers, becoming a character in its own right. The bracelet shows how incompatible individuals become associated and confused in the mind of an observer when an object gets entangled with them. In that novel, the refined Costanza and the vulgar Vittoria become enmeshed as "the bracelet pressed them into one another and confused them, confusing me." There is no such thing as objective reality in Ferrante's oeuvre: the writing emerges not from a carefully drafted plan or from an epiphany of the real but from "collisions" between the narrator and the world "in which not only the narrator but the author herself, a pure maker of writing, was enmeshed." In other words, the narrator is not an external observer; she is deeply interconnected with that tangle, too. If these reflections confirm Ferrante's embrace of a neomaterialist worldview, they also help us make sense of that unruly writing tension she mentions in her first essay. Invoking the digressive literature of humours by Diderot and Sterne, the writer identifies the models of that impetuous style struggling against the margins of the written page. She then proceeds to tell us how, in her first three novels ( Troubling Love, The Days of Abandonment, and The Lost Daughter), she managed "to calibrate the two kinds of writing, using the more compliant for a slow-fake realist pace and the more unruly to break down with its fiction the fiction...

Liberal egalitarian justice in the distribution of a common output. Experimental evidence and implications for effective institution design

AbstractWe present an experiment that sets up a context of production of a common output obtained by using production means that are randomly and unequally distributed. Before the production phase, subjects must choose a distributive principle for the output division, under ignorance of the allocation of the production means. Subsequently, they make a distributive choice fully aware of their luck and performance. The aim of the experiment is to test, first, whether ordinary subjects in an impartial situation are capable of converging on a fair principle of distribution – able of redressing the arbitrariness of the initial production means allocation; and second, whether these same ordinary subjects are capable of actually following that principle in a real distributive choice that excludes coercion, reputation effects and other forms of social pressures. The main finding is that a distributive rule that redresses initial inequalities is both acceptedex-anteand actually appliedex-postby most individuals. Our conclusion is relevant for the issue of realism of normative theories of justice and the possibility of institution design aimed at implementing distributive justice principles and policies.

The Bureau and the Realism of Spy Fiction

Abstract This article addresses the issue of realism in relationship to contemporary serial fiction. Drawing on The Bureau (Canal+, 2015–2020), it argues that spy TV series are “realistic” not because they correspond to reality but because of their impact on reality. It begins by giving an overview of the many ways in which “realism,” in the ordinary sense of a resemblance with reality, served as the working framework for The Bureau’s team. It then identifies three distinct types of realisms in the series. The first is a “fictional realism,” namely the ability of The Bureau to conform to the aesthetic and narrative conventions of realistic fictions. The second type of realism, which I qualify as “ordinary,” refers to the possibilities offered by the show’s aesthetics and the enmeshment of The Bureau with viewers’ ordinary experience. The third type of “performative realism” refers to the series’ impact on shared representations and reality. By providing a common language about the secret activities of the state, The Bureau has gone from being a framed version of reality to being one of the defining frameworks through which state secrecy is experienced both individually and collectively, by insiders and the public at large.

Thinking Against Nature: Nature, Ideation, and Realism between Lovecraft and Shelling

The article develops the possibilities of several philosophical concepts to ground a philosophy of nature that would be capable of withstanding correlationist critics. The author refers to Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling’s Naturphilosophie and exposes productivity of the concept of self-productive Nature by the means of contemporary speculative capabilities. Precisely, the traditionally evaded by process philosophy and “naive” realism issue of production of thought of the one that is being produced itself. The means for the new philosophy of nature the author finds in weird fiction of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and in “non-philosophy” of François Laruelle as read by Ray Brassier. Lovecraft’s unnameable and Schellings’ unconditioned eternal not only stand against metaphysics in the process philosophy. They also provide the means to formalize the thought that emerges out of Nature. The author criticizes Meillassoux’s metaphysical hyper-Chaos and Deleuzian virtuality for their prioritization of thought. He confronts them with the thought about the horrible as a challenge, with the escalation of thought up to the ontology which is incomparable to humane. Schelling’s Nature becomes the basis for the possible realism beyond the limits of common sense. Deep, endless objects do not contradict Nature but are being produced out of it against our epistemological restrictions. Schelling’s transcendental realism and naturalism turn out as a Lovecraftian-Schellingian realism, the result of horribly speculative reason. This reason operates in the Real, it is produced from the very Nature itself. Its formalizations point at the objects of deep Nature’s cosmic processes instead of descending to the limits, established by Kant. An object in such a philosophy of nature is a representation of the suspension of boundless Nature. Nature that produces itself and explores itself in such suspensions. The Nature that is shrouded in long timescales.

Defining Reality: Photography and the Surrealist Concept of the Image in Poland in the 1940s

The text discusses definitions of photography formulated in Poland in the 1940s. The author analyses Zbigniew Dłubak’s series of photographs inspired by the poetry of Pablo Neruda in reference to surrealism, Marxism, and, primarily, to Władysław Strzemiński’s theory of vision. Particular emphasis is placed on the concept of the image shared by Dłubak and Strzemiński, a concept that links the issue of realism with individual expression, allowing for a formal differentiation of representation (abstraction). In consequence, the analysed series by Dłubak is presented as sharing similarities with seemingly formally remote series of collages To My Friends the Jews by Strzemiński. Both demonstrate an ambition to express in the modern form both collective realism as well as individual memory, primarily of the war events. Proposed interpretation suggests that the use and understanding of photography as a medium closely tied to reality had a decisive meaning for the new formula of the image constructed right after 1945 – formula open to experimenting, yet also ideologically radical, addressing the existential problems of the individual involved with the new political order.

In defence of a liberal realism and a realist political ethics: On Edward Hall’s Value, Conflict, and Order

This review argues that Edward Hall’s outstanding new book on the political thought of three outstanding 20th-century thinkers – Isaiah Berlin, Stuart Hampshire and Bernard Williams – has three major substantial contributions to contemporary realism: it offers convincing realist interpretations of their oeuvres, extracts inspiring new ideas from their works for future theorizing and provides powerful arguments in defence of a liberal realist position. However, given Hall’s expertise in Williams’ thought, it might be surprising that the chapters about Hampshire seem the most interesting and most convincing parts of the book because they address some of the most fundamental issues of realism in an especially concise and well-written form.

QBism Is Not So Simply Dismissed

QBism is one of the main candidates for an epistemic interpretation of quantum mechanics. According to QBism, the quantum state or the wavefunction represents the subjective degrees of belief of the agent assigning the state. But, although the quantum state is not part of the furniture of the world, quantum mechanics grasps the real via the Born rule which is a consistency condition for the probability assignments of the agent. In this paper, we evaluate the plausibility of recent criticism of QBism . We focus on the consequences of the subjective character of the quantum state, the issue of realism and the problem of the evolution of the quantum state in QBism. In particular, drawing upon Born's notion of invariance as the mark of the real, it is argued that there is no essential difference between Einstein's program of the "real" and QBists' realism. Also, it will be argued that QBism can account for the unitary evolution of the quantum state.

Realism, perspectivism, and disagreement in science

This paper attends to two main tasks. First, I introduce the notion of perspectival disagreement in science. Second, I relate perspectival disagreement in science to the broader issue of realism about science: how to maintain realist ontological commitments in the face of perspectival disagreement among scientists? I argue that often enough perspectival disagreement is not at the level of the scientific knowledge claims but rather of the methodological and justificatory principles. I introduce and clarify the notion of ‘agreeing-whilst-perspectivally-disagreeing’ with an episode from the history of modern physics: namely, how we came to agree about the electric charge as a minimal natural unit despite different scientific perspectives and associated data-to-phenomena inferences available for it in the period 1897–1906.

Realism in Political Theory, Ethnographic Sensibility, and the Moral Agency of Bureaucrats

This article argues that ethnographic methods, or an ethnographic sensibility more broadly speaking, can go some way to addressing a thorny issue of realism in political theory. Realists are committed to taking context seriously and to offering critique, but how can they do both? Based on a reconstruction of the main lines of inquiry and arguments of Bernardo Zacka’s When the State Meets the Street, the article shows that an ethnographic sensibility is well suited to address the realist predicament because it combines two levels of interpretation. On one level, it seeks to reconstruct people’s understanding of what they are doing and who they are. On a second level, ethnography seeks to interpret the larger ideational and material power relations that affect people’s values and practices. The essay spells out how taking an ethnographic sensibility can enhance (realist) political theorists’ understanding of the nature and limits of politics in a particular context, while at the same time providing a starting point for potentially transformative criticism from within this context.

Selective Realism and the Framework/Interaction Distinction: A Taxonomy of Fundamental Physical Theories

Following the proposal of a new kind of selective structural realism that uses as a basis the distinction between framework and interaction theories, this work discusses relevant applications in fundamental physics. An ontology for the different entities and properties of well-known theories is thus consistently built. The case of classical field theories—including general relativity as a classical theory of gravitation—is examined in detail, as well as the implications of the classification scheme for issues of realism in quantum mechanics. These applications also shed light on the different range of applicability of the ontic and epistemic versions of structural realism.

Realism Versus Constructivism in Their Competition for Dominance in Politics: The Case of Russia

This article focuses on the general theoretical issue of realism versus constructivism (or normativism) in politics, with a case of the present-day Russia as the main and most telling (but not the only) example. We present four assertions that we are going to defend. First, we claim that in the sphere of international relations, political realism of the offensive type, after decades of more tempered USA–USSR relations, is again challenging its opponent: political constructivism. Second, political realism is winning in the sphere of domestic politics and policy in the leading countries as well. Third, we touch upon theoretical issues and discuss the ontological nature of political realism in comparison with political constructivism and the kindred of the latter with normativism, legalism, constitutionalism and liberalism. Political constructivism as a concept is underestimated and rarely used. Our article explicates the concept of political constructivism, which is a novel contribution to political theory and political philosophy. Fourth, we show that political constructivism, being the most advanced achievement of political civilization compared to archaic realism, has not lost the game so far and should be upheld in its battle with the remnants of the wild political past. Sliding back to political realism would turn humankind into another degraded animal species instead of making it the pilot in continuing human progress.

Realism Behind the Reduction in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus

The paper deals with the controversial issue of realism in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. Most of the problems are grounded in the logical-linguistic foundation of important ontological notions given within the text (such as object, state of affairs, fact, etc.). This has led some scholars to think that there is no conception of the world in the Tractatus that is independent of language and that in his work Wittgenstein is simply engaged in a logical investigation of what it is essential for any language to represent reality. Therefore, no conclusions about a transcendent world can be drawn from it. Here we argue that it is true that the author of the Tractatus is engaged in a logical investigation, conducted a priori and internal to language, on the conditions that are (or have to be) satisfied by any significant language. However, what such an investigation reveals, given one of these languages, is the necessity to presuppose a world made in a certain way and transcendent to the language that pretends to des...

With radicals like these, who needs conservatives? Doom, gloom, and realism in political theory

This paper attempts to get some critical distance on the increasingly fashionable issue of realism in political theory. Realism has an ambiguous status: it is sometimes presented as a radical challenge to the status quo; but it also often appears as a conservative force, aimed at clipping the wings of more ‘idealistic’ political theorists. I suggest that what we might call ‘actually existing realism’ is indeed a conservative presence in political philosophy, and that its ambiguous status plays a part in making it so. But I also argue that there is no necessary connection between realism and conservatism. This paper describes the three contingent and suspiciously quick steps which lead from an initial commitment to being attentive to the real world, via a particular kind of pessimism about political possibilities, to an unnecessarily conservative destination. In the process, I try to show how the ubiquitous trinity of realism, pessimism and conservatism might be pulled apart, thus removing the artificial tension between ‘being realistic’ and the demand for far-reaching social change.

La novità del nuovo realismo

The Novelty of New Realism In the Italian public cultural discussion it has often been argued that philosophical realism is an obsolete and irrelevant conception and that no attention should be given to its new versions. In this article, it is argued that this thesis is flawed because the issue of realism is philosophically inescapable. This will be argued by discussing two examples that come from science. The first example concerns the concept of species, which is hotly debated today both in biology and in the philosophy of biology. What is relevant here is that none of the available definitions of species cover all the cases biologists would like to cover – so that several scholars have taken the antirealist attitude by denying the objective reality of species. The other example concerns the birth of modern science, which (against some contemporary interpretations) cannot be understood without appreciating its deep commitments toward a realistic interpretation of scientific theories. Some objections will also be dealt with that have been raised by the antirealists, such as the one centered on the alleged connection of new realism with political realism and another that concerns the status of conventions in our practices.

Pragmatist Perspectives on Theological and Religious Realism

This essay first applies the general issue of realism vs. antirealism to theology and the philosophy of religion, distinguishing between several different ‘levels’ of the realism dispute in this context. A pragmatic approach to the problem of realism regarding religion and theology is sketched and tentatively defended. The similarities and differences of scientific realism, on the one hand, and religious and/or theological realism, on the other hand, are thereby also illuminated. The concept of recognition is shown to be crucially relevant to the issue of realism especially in its pragmatist articulation.

Interpreting Kant’s Conception of Proper Science in Practical Realism

immanuel Kant can be regarded as a philosopher related to the Baltic region. this paper, however, is not a historical study of the Baltic reception of Kant’s philosophy, but of Kant’s concept of proper science (eigentliche Wissenschaft), which is analyzed by comparing it to a theoretical model of science—φ-science—developed within the context of practical realism. the issues of realism and practice in philosophy of science—as well as their relations to Kant’s philosophical legacy—have been centrally important in the Baltic-nordic region. According to Kant, only quantified sciences, exemplified by physics, are proper sciences, because mathematics provides a priori principles for cognizing physical laws, thus affording apodictically certain knowledge. this conception is rooted in transcendental idealism. in this paper it is shown how Kant’s transcendental idealism and apriorism as the basis for properly scientific—apodictically certain—knowledge can be overcome (or rather, “sublated”) within the practical realist position.