Realism

[A490/B519] "We have sufficiently proved in the Transcendental Aesthetic that everything intuited in space or time, and therefore all objects of any experience possible to us, are nothing but appearances, that is, mere representations, which, in the manner in which they are represented, as extended beings, or as series of alterations, have no independent existence outside our thoughts. The realist, on the transcendental meaning of this term, treats these modifications of our sensibility as self-subsistent things, that is, treats mere representations as things in themselves". Empirical realism is the doctrine that empirical objects are appearances; transcendental realism is the doctrine that empirical objects are things in themselves. Empirical idealism denies the objective reality of appearances; transcendental idealism denies that the objects of experiences are things in themselves (that is, asserts that they objects of experience are dependent upon the receptivity and spontaneity of our mind--on the faculties of sensibility and understanding).

Briefly, a realist about x holds that x enjoys mind-independent existence, that is, x exists regardless of whether anyone thinks, hopes or fears that x exists.
&ltDiscussion &gt &lt References &gt Pete Mandik

See Epistemological realism ; Naive realism ; New realism ; "Representative realism" Classical realism ; Conceptual realism ; Representative realism ; and Empirical realism