Realism and Antirealism

Throughout the past century, a debate has raged over the thesis of realism and its alternatives. Realism--the seemingly commonsensical view that all or most of what we encounter in the world exists and is what it is independently of human thought--has been vigorously denied by such prominent intellectuals as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, Thomas Kuhn, Hilary Putnam, and Nelson Goodman.