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...to realism the Universal exists ante rem (Plato), or in re (Aristotle). (b) As opposed to idealism, the doctrine that in sense perception there is an immediate cognition of the external object, and our knowledge of it is not mediate and representative. 2. (Art & Lit.) Fidelity to nature or to real life; representation without idealization, and making no appeal to the imagination; adherence to the actual fact. realism n 1: art and literature that represents events and social conditions as they actually are (without idealization) 2: the attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth 3: the state of being actual or real: "the reality of his situation slowly dawned on him" [syn: reality, realness] [ant: unreality] 4: the philosophical doctrine that physical object continue to exist when not perceived [syn: naive realism] 5: an artistic movement in 19th century France; artists and writers strove for detailed realistic and factual description [syn: naturalism] 6: the philosophical doctrine that abstract concepts exist independent of their names [syn: Platonism] in literature, an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. Although realism is not limited to any one century or group of writers, it is most often associated with the literary movement in 19th-century France, specifically with the Frenc...