現(xiàn)實主義是文學藝術的基本創(chuàng)作方法之一,其實際運用時間相當早遠,但直到19世紀50年代才由法國畫家?guī)鞝栘惡妥骷蚁姆蛄欣镒鳛橐粋€名稱提出來,恩格斯為“現(xiàn)實主義”下的定義是：除了細節(jié)的真實外,還要真實的再現(xiàn)典型環(huán)境中的典型人物.(1888年4月初致瑪.哈克奈斯信)
在文學藝術創(chuàng)作中,現(xiàn)實主義是與浪漫主義并駕齊驅兩大思潮,其注重事實或現(xiàn)實；不受理想主義、臆測或感傷主義影響的客觀過程；客觀地而不憑感情地去處理思想和行動,反對一切不切實際或空想的性格.
As a term of art in philosophy,realism refers to a thesis that general properties,technically known as universals,have a mode of existence or a form of reality that is in a certain sense independent of the things that possess them.Opposing theses,known as nominalism,and conceptualism,hold that universals are not real or do not properly exist,that only individuals and particulars exist,and that it is only the corresponding general concepts of thought or universal terms of language,serving as equivocal denotations of many particular things,that deceive the mind into thinking so.Philosophical realism is also referred to as Platonic realism or Scholastic realism,depending on the nuances of the particular variant in mind.In some versions of realism,in stark contrast to everyday usage,a distinction is drawn between existence and reality,based on the idea that potentials can be real but that only actuals can exist.
In a separate context of discussion,realism is contrasted with both idealism and materialism,and is more controversially considered by others to be synonymous with the position in the philosophy of mind known as dualism.In recent transmogrifications of the word,realism is contrasted with anti-realism and irrealism.
Increasingly these last disputes,too,are rejected as misleading,and some philosophers prefer to call the kind of realism espoused there metaphysical realism and eschew the whole debate in favour of simple naturalism or natural realism,which is not so much a theory as the position that these debates are ill-conceived,if not incoherent,and that there is no more to deciding what is really real than simply taking our words at face value.
Realism in philosophy can also refer to other forms of realism such as moral realism and scientik