Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Epistemology, metaphysics Also called new realism. An American philosophical movement of the early twentieth century, which originated with a common manifesto published in the Journal of Philosophy (1910), entitled “A Program and First Platform of Six Realists.” The six philosophers were Ralph Barton Perry, William P. Montague, E. B. Holt, Walter Pitkin, Edward Spaulding, and Walter Marvin. In 1912 they published a cooperative volume, The New Realism, that gave the movement its name. New realism rejected idealism, in particular that of Royce. It claimed that idealism argues fallaciously from the premise that everything known is known to the conclusion that for everything to be is to be known. It rejected the egocentric predicament, which moves from our being at the center of what we know to the claim that this placement affects the nature of what we know. The nature of reality can not be inferred merely from the nature of knowledge. The entities that are the objects of scientific studies are not conditioned by their being known, although they are presented to consciousness and have cognitive relations. As a version of direct realism, neo-realism emphasized a direct acquaintance with physical objects and claimed that what is known is independent of the knowing relation. Reality is a datum, given independently of whatever ideas may be formed about it. The perceived object is identical ... log in or subscribe to read full text