Realism. This word is used to denote very different things.
1st. Realism is opposed to nominalism, and means the attribution of reality to universals, as the latter term means the denial of such. This was the great philosophical controversy of the Middle Ages.
2ndly. Realism is used in opposition to idealism, and in such case means the attribution of external reality to matter, as opposed to idealism, the doctrine of Berkeley and others, which denies this; also the immediacy of perception, without the interposition of a mental representation, according to what used to be called the ideal theory.
3rdly. Realism has been lately used in æsthetic criticism, as opposed to idealism in art. Realistic pictures are such as aim at reproducing exact facts, instead of exhibiting ideals.
It is singular that in the two last usages, the words idea and ideal take the opposite place to that which they would occupy in the old controversy of realism and nominalism, for the mediaeval realist was the idealist.
