Introduction (Realism and Anti-Realism)

Existence Thesis (Brock & Mares)

The idea that there are facts or entities distinctive of a domain. This is half of the recipe for realism.

Independence Thesis (Brock & Mares)

The idea that these facts/entities exist objectively and mind‑independently. This is half of the recipe for realism.

Realism

The belief that the thing we are talking about (chairs, beliefs, numbers, moral values, etc) exist and they exist more or less independently of us as humans.

Sense-data

The immediate objects of awareness in perception, understood as mind‑dependent, private, and non‑physical items that mediate our experience of the external world.

The Confidence Thesis

This is another thesis that some philosophers think is important in the definition of realism. It is the idea that, although it may in some circumstances be difficult, we are always capable of coming to know about the existence and nature of the domain we are realists about. That domain is epistemically accessible to us.

The Insecurity Thesis

This is another thesis that some philosophers think is important in the definition of realism. It is the idea that it is possible to be in ignorance or error about the domain we are realists about. In order to avoid such mistakes, one must make appropriate contact with the domain in question, and there is no guarantee that anyone will succeed in doing that.

Ontological commitment

The idea that we can determine what exists according to a theory by looking at what that theory must quantify over in order to be true.

Ockham’s Razor

The methodological principle that, when choosing between competing explanations, the simplest explanation—the one that makes the fewest assumptions—should be preferred.

Error theory

The idea that claims about the domain are false

Prefix Fictionalism

The idea that claims about a domain are true according to a fiction.

Instrumentalism / non‑cognitive fictionalism

The idea that claims about a domain are false but useful.

Non‑factualism

The idea that claims about a domain are not truth‑apt at all.

Solipsism

The idea that there is nothing beyond your own mind.

Kantianism

The idea that entities posited by commonsense and the empirical sciences exist, but in a mind-dependent way.