Critical Realism
Critical Realism
A theory of knowledge which affirms an objective world independent of one’s perception or conception of it (hence realistic) but critical in the sense of acknowledging the difficulties in affirming that all in the knowing relation is objective. The theory must be distinguished further as follows
(a) In general, critical realism is distinguished from naive or uncritical realism.
(b) It may refer to any number of realists, such as those of the Scottish School, critical monism, etc. (See under proper headings.)
(c) A special school called “Critical Realists” arose as a reactionary movement against the alleged extravagant views of another school of realists called the “New Realists” (q.v.). According to the “Critical Realists” the objective world, existing independently of the subject, is separated in the knowledge-relation by media or vehicles or essences. These intermediaries are not objects but conveyances of knowledge. The mind knows the objective world not directly (epistemological monism) but by means of a vehicle through which we perceive and think (epistemological dualism). For some, this vehicle is an immediate mental essence referring to existences, for some a datum, for some a subsistent realm mediating knowledge, and for one there is not so much a vehicle as there is a peculiar transcendental giasping of objects in cognition. In 1920 Essays in Critical Realism was published as the manifesto, the platform of this school. Its collaborators were D. Drake, A. O. Lovejoy, J. B. Pratt, A. K. Rogers, G. Santayana, R. W. Sellars, and C A. Strong. — V.F.