This collection of original essays aims to reinvigorate the debate surrounding philosophical realism in relation to philosophy of science, pragmatism, epistemology, and theory of perception. Questions concerning realism are as current and as ancient as philosophy itself; this volume explores relations between different positions designated as 'realism' by examining specific cases in point, drawn from a broad range of systematic problems and historical views, from ancient Greek philosophy through the present. With an editorial introduction by Kenneth R. Westphal, these fourteen original essays provide wide-ranging, salient insights into the status of realism today.

Kenneth R. Westphal is Professor of Philosophy at Bogaziçi Üniversitesi, Istanbul, Turkey

Introduction Kenneth R. Westphal Part I: Realism Contextualized 1. What is Real(ism)? Jaakko Hintikka 2. Aristotle's Direct Realism and Some Later Developments Mika Perälä 3. Late Mediaeval Realisms: Key Arguments Supporting Non-Semantic Universality Laurent Cesalli 4. Descartes on the Formal Reality, Objective Reality, and Material Falsity of Ideas: Realism through Constructivism? Dermot Moran 5. Quine's Conception of Objects: Beyond Realism and Anti-Realism Antti Keskinen 6. Did Sherlock Holmes Inhale Pipe Smoke Through a Hole In His Forehead? Peter Swirski Part II: Scientific Realism 7. Realism: Metaphysical, Semantic, and Scientific Panu Raatikainen 8. Scientific Realism: Independence, Causation, and Abduction Ilkka Niiniluoto 9. Cognitive Semantics and Newton's Rule Four of Experimental Philosophy: Scientific Realism without Empiricism Kenneth R. Westphal 10. Naturalism without Metaphysics Jonathan Knowles Part III: Pragmatism and Realism 11. Majesty of Truth and the Moral Sentiment: Emerson's and Peirce's Ethico-Ontological Realism Heikki A. Kovalainen and Douglas R. Anderson 12. Concepts and the Real in C. I. Lewis' Epistemology Lauri Järvilehto 13. Pragmatic Realism Sami Pihlström 14. McDowell's Pragmatist Anti-Anti-Realism Eirik Julius Risberg