Subtle realism is a philosophical position within social science that, along with other forms of

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: * Classical Realism *Literary realism, a mov ...

, stands opposed to

naïve realism In philosophy of perception and philosophy of mind, naïve realism (also known as direct realism, perceptual realism, or common sense realism) is the idea that the senses provide us with direct awareness of objects as they really are. When refer ...

and various kinds of

relativism Relativism is a family of philosophical views which deny claims to objectivity within a particular domain and assert that valuations in that domain are relative to the perspective of an observer or the context in which they are assessed. Ther ...

and

scepticism Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

. The term was coined by

Martyn Hammersley Martyn Hammersley (born 1949) is a British sociologist whose main publications cover social research methodology and philosophical issues in the social sciences. Biography He studied sociology as an undergraduate at the London School of Economi ...

. Its central issue is the relationship between the investigator and the

phenomena A phenomenon ( : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried ...

being studied: are those phenomena and their characteristics independent of the process of

inquiry An inquiry (also spelled as enquiry in British English) is any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem. A theory of inquiry is an account of the various types of inquiry and a treatment of the ...

, or is the character of what is investigated determined, structured, or shaped by the research? Subtle realism insists that phenomena are independent, but that knowledge of them is always constructed by the investigator—rather than, for example, being logically derived from sense impressions. It also asserts that social inquiry cannot ''reproduce'' phenomena, or capture their essence, but can only produce answers to particular questions about them. There are many concepts of

, such as

metaphysical realism Philosophical realism is usually not treated as a position of its own but as a stance towards other subject matters. Realism about a certain kind of thing (like numbers or morality) is the thesis that this kind of thing has ''mind-independent ex ...

, epistemological realism,

internal realism Hilary Whitehall Putnam (; July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist, and a major figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He made significant contributions ...

, and critical realism. As with these other examples, subtle realism involves a contrast with rejected alternatives, in this case not just with forms of

anti-realism In analytic philosophy, anti-realism is a position which encompasses many varieties such as metaphysical, mathematical, semantic, scientific, moral and epistemic. The term was first articulated by British philosopher Michael Dummett in an argument ...

but also with

. The latter is the idea that knowledge must be a direct product of contact between an investigator and an independently existing reality, this contact taking place via the senses or by some other direct means. A corollary of naïve realism is that, without such immediate contact, no knowledge is possible.

Features in detail

Against relativism, subtle realism asserts that there is a single reality (not multiple realities corresponding to different perspectives), and that it is possible to gain knowledge of the phenomena that make up this reality. Against naive realism it holds that beliefs cannot be ''logically'' derived from, or proven absolutely via, sense impressions or any other kind of immediately given data; that a distinction must be drawn between what is true and what can be believed with justification, the latter being decided on the basis of what is beyond reasonable doubt; and that any understanding or knowledge produced comprises answers to particular questions about the phenomena, rather than capturing those phenomena " in themselves"—in other words, it cannot simply reproduce them.Hammersley, M. (1992) ''What's Wrong with Ethnography?'', London, Routledge, Ch 1. Deciding what is beyond reasonable doubt involves assessing: # plausibility—the relationship between a knowledge claim and what is already taken to be well-established knowledge (Does it follow logically from this? Is it more weakly implied by this? Is it compatible with this? Is it at odds with this?); # credibility—how the knowledge claim was produced, specifically what were the chances of error in its production.Hammersley, M. (1992) ''What's Wrong with Ethnography?'', London, Routledge, Ch 4. Faced with a knowledge claim that is neither sufficiently plausible nor credible to be beyond reasonable doubt, determining its likely truth depends upon the

evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

available to support it. This evidence, in turn, is judged upon ''its'' plausibility and credibility. Beside the search for evidence, further information may also be sought about how the knowledge claim, or relevant evidence, was produced—so as to have better grounds for assessing its credibility. To use a commonplace example from detective stories, a witness claims to have seen someone murdered. A first basis for judging this is whether or not the allegedly murdered person is known to be still alive—if so, the claim is very implausible. If the person concerned has disappeared, then the claim that murder has taken place is compatible with what is known, so this provides a degree of plausibility, though relatively weak; finding the body would increase the plausibility. To strengthen the basis for making a judgment about who was the killer it is necessary to make sure that the witness was where he or she claimed to have seen the murder; had a clear view of what went on; that what was seen is strongly indicative of murder; and so on. In seeking further evidence we may want information about the witness (how good is the eyesight, does he or she have any reason to lie, and so on), facts about the scene, or testimony from other witnesses. In this way a case can be built for concluding that a murder took place and who did it, that it did not take place, or that the validity of the witness's statement remains uncertain. Nevertheless, any claim about the murder remains fallible, even if it is beyond reasonable doubt. The implications of subtle realism for social research are that scientific investigation of social phenomena is possible and desirable; and that it is quite distinct from, even though it shares some characteristics with, the production of literary or artistic fictions or the pursuit of practical or political goals. Equally important, it does not differ fundamentally in character from the ordinary

and

sensemaking Sensemaking or sense-making is the process by which people give meaning to their collective experiences. It has been defined as "the ongoing retrospective development of plausible images that rationalize what people are doing" ( Weick, Sutcliffe, ...

that people do during the course of everyday life; though the questions it addresses are usually much more difficult to answer than mundane ones, and it employs refined methods designed to tackle those questions.Seale, C. (1999) ''The Quality of Qualitative Research'', London: Sage, p. ix.

References

{{Reflist Philosophical realism

Features in detail

See also

References