Realism is a distinct and readily apprehended doc- trine in the higher ranges of metaphysics, character- izing the whole scheme of speculation with which ii may be associated. A Realist is one who maintains this doctrine. Realism asserts that General Terms,ot Ideas, .as they are called by Plato, such as M,ni. Horse, Plant, have a substantive, or real, existence independent of their actual and individual manifestations. This dogma early encountered opposition, which became so violent in ihe 12th and ensuing centuries as to distract philosophy, and to excite controversies that disturbed
creeds ami kingd s, and that siill survive, though in
disguised forms and with greatly diminished virulence.
The war of words frequently proceeded to blows and slaughter. Excommunication often attended the less 1 ulai side. Tracts, pamphlets, and formidable vol- umes were Sustained or resisted with carnal and san- guinary weapons. Communities were divided by the bitter logomachy into hostile factions. The Church swarmed with discords. Universities were arrayed against each other, or were torn by intestine dissen- sions. Cities Were opposed to cities; slates to stales;
one religious order to another; and the conflict between the temporal and spiritual sovereignty was exacerbated and widened by the metaphysical strife. Brucker, and multitudes less cognizant than be of the influence oi
metaphysical conclusions on the condition and iduct
of governments and societies, have superciliously sneered at these envenomed and long-enduring contentions, aa in e r.U the blind sophistries of men bewildered bv vain
abstractions or futile fantasies. But a philosophical
problem which has remained unsolved tor thousands of years, which engrossed and embattled the most acute intellects for centuries, and which has not yet ceased to produce perplexity and division; which enlisted the zeal alike of the scholar and the people, the priest and the prince, can be regarded as frivolous only by those who fail to discern the intellectual forces and associa- tions by which the progress of the world is moulded. Sir William Hamilton, indeed, doubts the continued ex- istence of any Realist doctrine, and regards it "as curi- ous only in a historical point of view;" hut this opin- ion apparently results from inattention to the trans- formations which speculative tenets undergo. and to the vitality of old doctrines through the instrumentality of new disguises. There is a true metempsychosis of met- aphysical questions:
"Nee manet nt fnerat, ncc formaa servat easdem, Sed tamen Ipsa eadem est : an imam sic semper candem Esse, sed in vaiias doceo migrare flgurae."
Sir William Hamilton's scant notices of Realism and Nominalism are ingenious, subtle, delicate, lint I bey- want compass, completeness, and depth.
Twin-born with Realism was Nominalism (q. v.), its direct opposite, which strenuously denies the reality of General Terms, and maintains that they are names only, logical entities, convenient artifices of expression (nomi- na mera, voces nudce, flatus vocis, articulated air, "vox it praterea nihil"). Springing, as these antagonist views do, from the weakness of the human mind, which is unable to comprehend the primordial origin of being, and which is inevitably inclined to consider its imperfect knowledge complete and conclusive, the opposition be- gan with the beginning of systematic speculation, ac- companied its development, and acquired predominance in the ages characterized by dialectical earnestness and verbal precision. The contradictory tenets were upheld by rival sects of Hindu philosophers; they produced a wide severance of opinion in the brightest, sera of Greek philosophy ; they remained irreconcilable, though at times indistinct, in the schools of Alexandria : they burst out into clamorous fury in the Middle Ages, when the loftiest intellects were employed in laying the foun- dations of systematic theology and of orthodox expres- sion.
Between the extreme and contradictory schemes of Realism and Nominalism was interposed, chiefly by the keen perspicacity of Abelard,bul in accordance with the probable views of Aristotle, a doctrine of compromise which has been designated Conceptualism. The Con- ceptualist theory holds that General Notions,oi I'ni- versals, have a real existence in individuals, but no real or substantial being without them. It recognises their positive existence in the mind, which derives them by abstraction and generalization from particulars, and em- ploys them as the sie,ns or names of the elasses of con- crete realities to which they are applicable. The Realist doctrine is that, before Socrates. Plato, and Phsedo, or any other individual men existed. Man, as an abstract ilea, bad an essential and immutable reality, and that Socrates, Plato, and Phsedo were men solely in conse-
ipieuce of possessing this ideal maul d Kara \
The Nominalist, on the other band, alleged that human- ity existed only in Socrates. Plato, Phsedo, and other individuals; that the term was only an intellectual de- vice for indicating the common properties character- istic of Socrates, Plato, and Phsedo by gi\ ing them the general name A/an, and thus embracing them in one class. The Conceptualist agreed with the Nominalist in
refusing an absolute existence to the general term M,ui. and in assigning to it a real existence only in conjunc- tion with Socrates, Plato, Phsedo, etc., bul be endeav- ored t" satisfy the demands of the Realist by admitting that the conception Mm/, attained by abstraction and generalization from individuals, had an actual existence, and wa- an intelligible reality in the mind apprehend- ing it. Thus Abelard was antagonist at once to Will—
REALISM
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iam of Champeaux and to Roscellinus. Employing the quaint but precise language of the schoolmen, the Real- ists held universalia esse ante rem; the Nominalists, universalia esse post rem ; the Conceptualists of various types, universalia esse in re. To the last should be added et etiam in intelleetu. These distinctions may appear shadowy and impalpable, but metaphysics dwells amid such "airy shapes," and these have had a marked influence and serious consequences in politics, law, mor- als, philosophy, and religion : " inclusas animas, supe- rumque ad lumen ituras."