Realist Claim Research Articles

Understanding molecular structure requires constructive realism

Since molecules are inaccessible to immediate observation, our conception of the molecule is brought about by transdiction which entails invention of various transcendental ideas. In organic chemistry we think that molecules consist of atoms, bonds, functional groups, etc. This is, however, not the unique description of the molecule as is shown by quantum mechanical calculations, for example. Then, what description represents the real molecule? Before asking this question, we have to consider what the real molecule is in the first place. Constructive realism distinguishes our cognitive world and the world just given, and claims that we should accept the former as reality. Understanding our cognitive world is possible only through construction of micro-worlds. Atoms (in molecules), bonds, functional groups, etc., are micro-worlds which make sense in a theoretical framework of organic chemistry. In this study we translate a micro-world to an affordance and paraphrase it as a context-relative dispositional attribute of an {agent-world} complex. Then, we can understand that it is what we take as molecular structure, not what might be out there to be found, that we should accept as reality. Excluding metaphysical fictions from scientific arguments, constructive realism makes science a meaningful activity. Constructive realism claims that, for getting knowledge of the world, we have to integrate information into our own linguistic frame, i.e., to translate it. Strangification is a technique of intentionally taking an accepted proposition out of one scientific system and putting it into a completely different context. As is the case with translation, strangification brings about deeper understanding of philosophical as well as scientific grounds on which the proposition system holds. We apply this method to molecular structure and reveal that it is an ingenious model to describe molecular behavior in multi-molecular systems with strong interactions between molecules. Information provided by strangification is essential to claim the legitimacy of a proposition system. As far as strangification is properly applied, relativism is irrelevant to constructive realism.

A General Model of Realist Fictional Narrative

The most advanced forms of modernist and poststructuralist critique have been highly skeptical of the realist claims made by many 17th and 18th century novels as well as the more programmatic realism of 19th century. Yet from painting and novels to photography and virtual reality, countless techniques and technologies of representation have been developed to give readers or spectators an experience that is realistic. Indeed, "realistic" is almost always a positive epithet. This article seeks to explain the continued allure of realist fictional narratives by analyzing the four cardinal modes that compose them: mimesis, form, fictionality, and the reader. Each of these modes is necessary, and in their balanced cooperation are sufficient, to account for the analytical scope and affective engagement achieved by realist fictional narrative.

Money Mazes, Media Machines, and Banana Republic Realisms

AbstractThis article resurrects the literary source of the phrase banana republic: O. Henry’s only novel, Cabbages and Kings (1904), which was inspired by his experiences in Honduras after fleeing from charges of embezzlement. Set in a fictitious country called Anchuria, the narrative grew out of two short stories titled “Money Maze” and “The Phonograph and the Graft.” O. Henry is seldom considered in discussions of US realism at the turn of the twentieth century; nevertheless, I argue that Cabbages and Kings parodically deploys a mode of “banana republic realism” that sheds light on the role of media technologies in the processes of imperial expansion and financialization. Given Lisa Gitelman’s claim that media are “integral to a sense of what representation itself is,” how do the ties between media and money impinge on the claims of realism—especially in enclave economies where the same corporation cultivating the export commodity might also control currency and communication technologies? With an eye to debates about realism in our own era of cryptocurrencies and algorithmic trading, the article points to the banana republic as a privileged site for understanding what happens to realist representation at moments when media become increasingly integral to the economy.

Novas formas do expressivismo: ecumenismo e quase-realismo

Por muito tempo, o apelo de teorias expressivistas dominou o debate na metaetica. O irrealismo normativo, representado na discussao pelo expressivismo, tomou de assalto o debate e por alguns anos pareceu ter enterrado as pretensoes realistas. Uma tendencia marcante na discussao mais atual e o surgimento de teorias que reconhecem um nucleo de verdade importante na visao realista-normativa, ja que o expressivismo aparentemente nao conseguiu superar todos os desafios de oferecer uma alternativa que exclua o cognitivismo. De Simon Blackburn e seu quase-realismo ao expressivismo ecumenico de Michael Ridge, o debate agora busca compatibilizar as vantagens do irrealismo com a interpretacao intuitivamente plausivel da linguagem e da pratica da moralidade contida no realismo normativo classico, que nunca deixou de ser o ponto de partida para qualquer abordagem metaetica. O presente trabalho expoe, traca paralelos e confronta essas duas contribuicoes para a reinterpretacao da abordagem expressivista em metaetica. Apesar dos meritos inegaveis das duas contribuicoes, o trabalho procura revelar algumas questoes abertas que, ao contrario das intencoes declaradas pelos autores originais, reaproximam essas formas mais atuais e sofisticadas da teorizacao metaetica aos pontos de vista classicos que elas pretendem superar. Palavras-chave : expressivismo, quase-realismo, ecumenismo metaetico, meta-semântica, Blackburn, Ridge.

Hylomorphism and Part-Whole Realism

Mereonominalism, holonominalism, and part-whole realism represent competing views on the metaphysics of parts and wholes. Mereonominalism claims that what parts exist is a function of the concepts we use in describing composite wholes. Holonominalism claims that what composite wholes exist is a function of the concepts we use in describing things that can qualify as parts. Part-whole realism claims that parts and wholes exist independent of our concepts. I argue that all three views face problems, but that the problem facing part-whole realism can be solved by adopting a version of hylomorphism that takes its cue from Aristotle's account of form.

Reconciliation in the Transformation of Conflict: An Analysis of the South African Experience and Implications for its Application in International Conflict Resolution from a Peace Theoretical Perspective

When violence has ceased it is often assumed that from this very moment peace has been restored. Definitions of peace and war have influenced earlier peace building interventions which in turn constituted the simple act of putting the weapons down as sufficient. Only recently have attempts to incorporate wider angles of facilitating peace and development been utilised. Critical approaches enhancing the perception of peace are put forward by Peace Theory scholars such as Johan Galtung and actual lessons learned serve to counter prevailing criticsm from Realist perspectives on peace. This paper demonstrates a rationale and case for supporting a more promising as well as more realistic view of peace and conflict management offered by peace theoretical considerations and approaches. Transformation of conflicts appears as preliminary requirement for lasting peace in the view of Peace Theory. Upholding this presumption, reconciliation is presented here as an essential process and likewise applicable method for transformation of conflict. The paper examines the advantages of reconciliation against Realist claims about power politics and international relations. After introducing the aim and outline of the paper, a theoretical framework will be established in the second chapter, acknowledging the Christian concept of reconciliation yet evolving towards modern interpretations within socio-political contexts. Scrutinising the applicability of reconciliation for conflict transformation, the third chapter presents reconciliation in practice drawing on the South African expample. Along this case study is highlighted how transitional justice is measured to default standards, what contextual constraints shape structure, mandate and process of applied reconciliation and why success is clearly visible in terms of socio-political reach. The model of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) also serves to elaborate the feasibility of institutionalising reconciliation in conflict transformation on international level. This paper stresses that conditions and design of the TRC resemble the setting of current international conflict transformation processes. Consequently chapter four discusses the specific impediments for applied peace theory in international context before the last chapter concludes the significance of applied reconciliation and non-retributive justice models for international conflict transformation.

Introspection and Primacy of Perception: A Critical Reflection on Naïve Realism

A fundamental issue in philosophy of perception is to understand the nature of experience and the relation of the experience with objects or states of affairs that is experienced. A prominent philosophical issue here is posed by the possibility of hallucinatory experiences, which are subjectively indistinguishable from veridical perception for the experiencer. The philosophical views in this matter can be grouped into three major positions on the basis of the nature of the subjective experience and relation of the subjective experience with the object. These are the sense-data theories—which consider that the objects of perception are mental entities; the representative theories—according to which perception is a representation of the objects in the external world; and the naive realist theories—which proclaim that the external objects are constitutive of the very perceptual experience and not a representation of it. Naive realism claims it is the defence of common-sense notion regarding experience i.e. how experience seems to the experiencer upon introspective reflection on it. This position has a growing number of proponents in philosophy especially in the last two decades. But it also entails radical departure of established philosophical views regarding the nature of experience, the phenomenal character of experience, and the experiencer–object relation. In this paper, we critically examine naive realism from two crucial aspects pertaining to it—the question of introspection being basis of naive realist thesis, and the notion of primacy of perception over non-veridical forms of experiences. We find that there are significant problems which weaken the naive realist thesis.

A Novel One-Transistor Dynamic Random-Access Memory (1T DRAM) Featuring Partially Inserted Wide-Bandgap Double Barriers for High-Temperature Applications.

These days, the demand on electronic systems operating at high temperature is increasing owing to bursting interest in applications adaptable to harsh environments on earth, as well as in the unpaved spaces in the universe. However, research on memory technologies suitable to high-temperature conditions have been seldom reported yet. In this work, a novel one-transistor dynamic random-access memory (1T DRAM) featuring the device channel with partially inserted wide-bandgap semiconductor material toward the high-temperature application is proposed and designed, and its device performances are investigated with an emphasis at 500 K. The possibilities of the program operation by impact ionization and the erase operation via drift conduction by a properly high drain voltage have been verified through a series of technology computer-aided design (TCAD) device simulations at 500 K. Analyses of the energy-band structures in the hold state reveals that the electrons stored in the channel can be effectively confined and retained by the surrounding thin wide-bandgap semiconductor barriers. Additionally, for more realistic and practical claims, transient characteristics of the proposed volatile memory device have been closely investigated quantifying the programming window and retention time. Although there is an inevitable degradation in state-1/state-0 current ratio compared with the case of room-temperature operation, the high-temperature operation capabilities of the proposed memory device at 500 K have been confirmed to fall into the regime permissible for practical use.

Aristotle’s realist regime theory

The ambition of this article is threefold. First, it is to offer a realist reading of Aristotle’s regime theory as it is laid out mostly in Books IV–VI of his Politics. The author argues that Aristotle’s regime theory has three fundamentally realist claims about the workings of politics: first, the search for a perfect regime is not the only legitimate subject of political theory; second, every regime is built on a delicate balance of a particular understanding of political justice, a variety of sociological factors and the institutional design and political virtues of its politicians; third, there are almost as many different regimes as polities, and although they can be grouped into major regime types, there are many sub-types and mixed and transitory regimes. Second, the article argues that modern democratic theories have an unacceptable ‘moralistic bias’ from a realist point of view. Third, that a neo-Aristotelian regime theory can offer an attractive realist alternative to the predominant contemporary understandings of political regimes.

The Rarity of Realpolitik: What Bismarck's Rationality Reveals about International Politics

Realpolitik, the pursuit of vital state interests in a dangerous world that constrains state behavior, is at the heart of realist theory. All realists assume either that states engage in such behavior or, at the very least, are highly incentivized to do so by the structure of the international system. Classical realists remind us, however, that Realpolitik presupposes rational thinking, which should not be taken for granted. Some leaders act more rationally than others because they think more rationally than others. Research in cognitive psychology provides a strong foundation for classical realist claims that Realpolitik requires a commitment to objectivity and deliberation, a particular psychology that few leaders exhibit. A case study of Otto von Bismarck's role in German reunification demonstrates that rationality is the exception, rather than the norm. Even though Prussia was under enormous structural constraints that should have incentivized Realpolitik, the man who would become the Iron Chancellor was isolated because of his foreign policy views. Bismarck consistently disagreed with conservative patrons and allies at home, disagreements that can be reduced largely to his higher degree of rationality.

Upgraded curriculum? An analysis of knowledge boundaries in teaching under the Swedish subject‐based curriculum*

ABSTRACTThis article offers a contribution to the current debate about knowledge and the curriculum, especially initiated by social realist writers. The enacted Swedish subject‐based curriculum for compulsory schooling is examined and is also used as a significant case with the aim of discussing practical implications of social realist claims regarding knowledge and the curriculum. Video‐recorded lessons from grade six in six different Swedish schools, in combination with teacher interviews, are explored within the scope of a curriculum theory framework with the purpose of illuminating dominant patterns of knowledge boundaries and knowledge conceptions. The study shows how the Swedish subject‐based curriculum frames teaching in a direction where a disciplinary knowledge conception with fixed knowledge boundaries predominates over other knowledge forms. The subject‐based curriculum also appears to produce an ‘overloading’ of content, which implies that pupils’ questions and experiences are avoided and dismissed in the teaching practice.

La rehabilitación de la noción de representación en Toulmin (o un intento de reformular a Kant en términos wittgensteinianos)

Frente a los ataques de las corrientes “antirrepresentacionalistas”, se presenta el análisis de Toulmin, que considera que la noción de representación es imprescindible para comprender la naturaleza de la actividad cognoscitiva. Comparte con Kant la idea de que nuestras actividades intelectuales imponen formas a priori, pero señala que la utilización del término alemán Vorstellung en la obra de Kant, hizo que su objetivo trascendental quedara atrapado en las redes de representaciones internas o mentales.
 La noción de representación que maneja, mediatizada por el giro pragmático wittgensteniano, es lo suficientemente compleja como para no quedar reducida a mera expresión lingüística, ni a un contenido mental individual. La adopción de esta estrategia representacional no implica compromiso alguno con la pretensión realista ontológica de «describir la realidad tal cual es en sí misma», ni con la tesis del realismo semántico de la referencia directa. Las consideraciones pragmáticas acerca de las relaciones entre conocimiento, lenguaje y prácticas humanas ofrecen una alternativa superadora en relación a posiciones reductivas.

The Lesson of Carl Schmitt’s Realism

Political realism claims that politics should be understood as politics and not as a derivative of any other field of human activity. While contemporary realists often argue for the autonomy of politics, this article suggests that only the primacy of politics can be the starting point of political realism. The aim of the article is to expose a conceptual deficiency, namely, the unclear difference between the autonomy and the primacy approach in contemporary realist theory by going back to Carl Schmitt’s contribution to political realism. It will be argued that Schmitt’s concept of the political foreshadowed the ambiguities of contemporary realist theory, exemplified by key authors such as Bernard Williams, Raymond Geuss and Mark Philp.

Implementation Meaning of Folk-tale based on the Orality

이야기판에서 구비설화가 구연되는 상황을 보면 우리가 가지고 있는 상식과 조응되지 않는 경우가 꽤 많다. 바로 이러한 곳에서 구비문학의 존재 의의를 찾을 수 있을 것이라 생각하고, 구술성에 입각하여 이 문제를 해결해 보려고 했다. 대화의 관점에서 보자면 구비설화는 풍부하고 혼란스런 맥락을 참여자들이 ‘조정’해가는 과정의 산물이다. 따라서 이야기판 참여자들이 설화를 매개로 어떻게 상황을 조정해나가는지, 이를 통해서 어떠한 의미를 발현시켜나가는지를 확인하는 작업은 충분한 의의를 지닌다고 하겠다. 설화 구연이 만들어준 상황을 적극적으로 이용하여 현실적인 주장을 펼치는 경우뿐만 아니라, 주어진 상황에 적절한 설화를 호출하는 경우도 설화 구연을 통한 담론화의 경향은 뚜렷하다. 하지만 이러한 담론화가 설화의 텍스트적인 의미에 종속되지는 않는다. 구연 상황이 텍스트의 다양한 구성요소와 자유롭게 연결될 수 있기 때문에 실제로 구현되는 의미는 텍스트의 핵심 내용과 일정한 거리가 있을 수 있다. 구술문화에서의 사고가 원래 그런 것처럼 구비설화도 삶의 맥락 속에서 상황 중심적이고 경험적인 의미를 구성하려는 경향이 강하다. 때문에 설화를 포함한 이야기는 그 자체로 구술문화의 조작적 사고(operational thinking)를 잘 보여주는 대표적인 예이다. 또한 구비설화는 비슷한 상황을 담지하고 있는 이야기들을 엮어냄으로써 구술문화적 사고를 일반화시키기도 한다. 이렇게 일반화된 담론들은 공적 지혜(communal wisdom)의 성격이 강하다. 추상적 성격을 갖는 공적 지혜를 이야기를 통해서 구체화하고, 이를 대화의 상황과 연결시켜서 구연함으로써 실제적 맥락과 교섭하게 한다. 하지만 이러한 설화의 구연은, 구연자 개인의 입장에서 보면 공적 지혜의 내면화이면서 공적 지혜의 틀 안에서 개성적인 인식을 모색하는 과정이기도 하다. 중요한 것은 이렇게 함으로써 상황의 역학에 의해서 공적 지혜가 텍스트 이상의 의미로 전달된다는 점이다.There are many cases where we do not agree with the common sense that we have in the situation where folk-tales are narrated in the storytelling-site. I think that in these places, I can find the significance of oral literature. Therefore, I try to solve this problem based on orality. From the point of view of dialogue, folk-tales have a rich and chaotic context. And folk-tales are the products of the process of participants mediation of context. Therefore, the work of confirming how the participants adjust the situation through the folk-tales and implement the meaning through it has enough significance. There are two kinds of storytelling-site’s situations related to discourse. First, it is a case of making a realistic claim by positively using the situation created by the folk-tale narration. Second, it is the case that the appropriate story is called for a given situation. In both cases, there is a tendency to discourse through folk-tales. But this discourse does not depend on the textual meaning of the folk-tale. Since the situation can be freely connected with the various components of the text, the actual meaning may be a certain distance from the core content of the text. Thinking in oral culture is originally situation-oriented and empirical. Likewise, folk-tales are apt to construct contextual and empirical meanings in the context of life. The story including folk-tale is itself a representative example of the operational thinking of the oral culture. It also generalizes oral cultural thought by tying stories that share similar situations. These generalized discourses are characterized by communal wisdom. Public wisdom with abstract character is formulated through stories. And it is also connected with the situation of the dialogue, so that it can communicate with the actual context. However, from the standpoint of the storyteller individual, folk-tale narration is a process of searching for individual recognition within the framework of public wisdom, both internalization of public wisdom. What is important is that, by doing this, the public wisdom is conveyed in a sense more than text, thanks to the dynamics of the situation.

A case for critical realism in the pursuit of interdisciplinarity and impact

In recent years, much social scientific scholarship in sport, exercise and health (SEH) has repudiated (post) positivist research and has instead persuasively argued in favour of qualitative research from constructivist–interpretivist paradigmatic approaches. While this scholarship has enriched the field in numerous ways, this paper contends that constructivist–interpretivist assumptions elicit a modus operandi which is inimical to the accomplishment of two associated contemporary research agendas: interdisciplinarity and impact. In seeking an alternative philosophy of science, the purpose of this paper is to explore how critical realism – meta-theoretical position that has been somewhat absent to date in SEH research – might offer qualitative researchers a new conceptual framework with which greater interdisciplinarity and impact can be achieved. Two main critical realist claims are introduced: (1) the epistemic fallacy can be avoided by adopting a stratified ontology and judgemental rationality, and (2) social science would benefit from seeking causal explanations underpinned by a transformational model of social activity. By de-coupling interpretive epistemologies from constructivist ontologies, it is argued that critical realism permits greater methodological plurality and hence can help transcend persistent paradigmatic boundaries. Indeed, by adopting a realist social ontology and complex, emergent conception of causality, this paper suggests that critical realism permits and encourages impact by asking researchers to focus on explaining the enduring social relations that produce real-world problems. The paper concludes by pointing out the limitations of critical realism and highlighting other ways that interdisciplinarity and impact can similarly be achieved.

Brain networks, structural realism, and local approaches to the scientific realism debate

We examine recent work in cognitive neuroscience that investigates brain networks. Brain networks are characterized by the ways in which brain regions are functionally and anatomically connected to one another. Cognitive neuroscientists use various noninvasive techniques (e.g., fMRI) to investigate these networks. They represent them formally as graphs. And they use various graph theoretic techniques to analyze them further. We distinguish between knowledge of the graph theoretic structure of such networks (structural knowledge) and knowledge of what instantiates that structure (nonstructural knowledge). And we argue that this work provides structural knowledge of brain networks. We explore the significance of this conclusion for the scientific realism debate. We argue that our conclusion should not be understood as an instance of a global structural realist claim regarding the structure of the unobservable part of the world, but instead, as a local structural realist attitude towards brain networks in particular. And we argue that various local approaches to the realism debate, i.e., approaches that restrict realist commitments to particular theories and/or entities, are problematic insofar as they don't allow for the possibility of such a local structural realist attitude.

The Extinct Scene: Late Modernism and Everyday Life

The Extinct Scene: Late Modernism and Everyday Life

Interdisciplinary Recommendations for the Treatment of Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma

Thanks to the use of targeted therapies, the prognosis of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) has improved significantly. A median overall survival of more than 2 years is a realistic claim. These improvements are also reflected in recent discussions about 3 and more lines of therapy.Sunitinib, pazopanib, the combination of bevacizumab and interferon alpha, and temsirolimus are approved for first-line therapy of mRCC. Sunitinib and pazopanib are also approved for second-line therapy, which, for pazopanib, is confined to the use after cytokine failure. Everolimus (after tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment), sorafenib (after cytokines) and axitinib (after treatment with sunitinib or cytokines) are other compounds available for second-line therapy.3 new substances have recently been approved for second-line therapy: Nivolumab, cabozantinib, and lenvatinib combined with everolimus can be used after VEGF-targeted treatment has failed. It is for the first time that targeted immunotherapy and a combination of targeted substances are available for the treatment of mRCC.There is no new insight as to an optimal sequence therapy. Study results from a phase III trial suggest that the sequences sorafenib-sunitinib and sunitinib-sorafenib are equally effective.The purpose of an interdisciplinary expert meeting on RCC was to work out joint treatment recommendations based on current data and clinical experience and to integrate them into clinical routine practice. The results are presented in this publication.

Investigation of eAircraft energetic optimization

The development and spreading of electric aircrafts happen differently from what we would expect based on the electrification of automotive. Replacing the total combustion based propulsion system to a fully electric drive system raises the need for optimization due to the energy efficiency. However, the mechanical and aerodynamical characteristics should be considered as well as the electrical in order to get a universal evaluation process. The aim of the present paper is to provide a method and metrics for energetic optimization during mission profile-oriented design of batteries. Therefore, more realistic claims can be raised against long-term electric aviation in terms of technical and also economical purposes.

You Are Not Expected to Survive: Affective Friction in the Combat Shooter Game <em>Battlefield 1</em>

You Are Not Expected to Survive: Affective Friction in the Combat Shooter Game <em>Battlefield 1</em>