Definitions of Ontology, Epistemology, Positivism, Feminism, Realism and Postmodernism on the Web

Information retrieved dated 30 May 2005 at URL: www.google.com/definition/

By Robert Lau

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Definitions of Ontology on the Web:

• An explicit formal specification of how to represent the objects, concepts, and other entities that are assumed to exist in some area of interest and the relationships that hold among them.
  dli.grainger.uiuc.edu/glossary.htm
• The study of the nature of being, reality, and substance.
  www.carm.org/atheism/terms.htm
• The science or study of being; that department of metaphysics which relates to the being or essence of things, or to being in the abstract. 1721 BAILEY, Ontology, an Account of being in the Abstract. a1832 BENTHAM Fragm. Ontol. Wks. 1843 VIII. 195 The field of ontology, or as it may otherwise be termed, the field of supremely abstract entities, is a yet untrodden labyrinth.
  www.ics.uci.edu/~alspaugh/glossary-ext.html
• 1 : a branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature and relations of being * See Note on Subjects and Concepts and Facet.
  wason.home.mindspring.com/TDW/Glossary.htm
• specification of a conceptualisation of a knowledge domain. An ontology is a controlled vocabulary that describes objects and the relations between them in a formal way, and has a grammar for using the vocabulary terms to express something meaningful within a specified domain of interest. The vocabulary is used to make queries and assertions. Ontological commitments are agreements to use the vocabulary in a consistent way for knowledge sharing. Ontologies can include glossaries, taxonomies and thesauri, but normally have greater expressivity and stricter rules than these tools. A formal ontology is a controlled vocabulary expressed in an ontology representation language
  members.optusnet.com.au/~webindexing/Webbook2Ed/glossary.htm
• the study of the broadest range of categories of existence, which also asks questions about the existence of particular kinds of objects, such as numbers or moral facts.
  www.filosofia.net/materiales/rec/glosaen.htm
• Ontologies resemble faceted taxonomies but use richer semantic relationships among terms and attributes, as well as strict rules about how to specify terms and relationships. Because ontologies do more than just control a vocabulary, they are thought of as knowledge representation. The oft-quoted definition of ontology is "the specification of one's conceptualization of a knowledge domain."
  www.noisebetweenstations.com/personal/essays/metadata_glossary/metadata_glossary.html
• Metaphysics, or a subdiscipline of metaphysics which investigates the fundamental kinds of entities and relations which hold between them. The ontological commitments of a theory—ie, what kinds of entities a theory assumes to exist; eg, the ontology of Cartesian dualism is different from that of eliminative materialism.
  philosophy.wlu.edu/gregoryp/class/fall02/313/glossary.html
• A branch of metaphysics concerned specifically with what (kinds of) things there are.
  www.shef.ac.uk/~phil/other/philterms.html
• Ontology is the study of what there is, an inventory of what exists. An ontological commitment is a commitment to an existence claim. <Discussion> <References> Gene Witmer
  www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/O.html
• a study of the ultimate nature of things.
  www.willdurant.com/glossary.htm
• In philosophy, ontology is the branch that studies what things exist. WVO Quine's view is that the ontology is what the variables range over. Ontology has been used variously in AI, but I think Quine's usage is best for AI. ``Reification'' and ``ontology'' treat the same phenomena. Regrettably, the word ``ontology'' has become popular in AI in much vaguer senses. Ontology and reification are basically the same concept.
  www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/concepts-ai/node2.html
• When we refer to an ontology in the context of MetaCyc, we are usually referring to a hierarchical classification system that is used to organize information within the database. For example, the metabolic pathways within MetaCyc are arranged into a hierarchical system of classes that subdivide the set of all pathways into subclasses such as Biosynthetic Pathways and Biosynthesis of Amines and Polyamines. These classification systems allow users to retrieve related sets of objects within the database, and to drill down from more general to more specific classes of information.
  metacyc.org/MetaCycDefinitions.shtml
• From OWL Web Ontology Language Guide (2004-02-10) (1) collection of information, generally including information about classes and properties (2) the information contained in an ontology document
  www.w3.org/2003/glossary/subglossary/owl-guide.rdf/20
• branch of philosophy concerned with the study of being, of reality in its most fundamental and comprehensive forms.
  www.atf.org.au/papers/glossary.asp
• Ontology is that branch of philosophy that is concerned with the study of Being (existence) itself. see Being.
  www.apologetics.org/glossary.html
• Metaphysics is customarily divided into ontology, which deals with the question of how many fundamentally distinct sorts of entities compose the universe, and metaphysics proper, which is concerned with describing the most general traits of reality.
  www.levity.com/mavericks/glossary.htm
• Ontology is derived from the two Greek words o/)ntwj(ontos) meaning "to be" and lo/goj(logos) meaning "word." Ontology is the science or study of being.
  www.two-age.org/glossary.htm
• A branch of philosophy focusing upon the origins, essence and meaning of being.
  www.adamranson.freeserve.co.uk/critical%20concepts.htm
• DAG that, from our point of view, represents the content of an "information island". It is composed of concepts and roles organized hierarchically.
  siul02.si.ehu.es/OBSERVER/DOC/glosario.html
• One of the major branches of philosophy, most often contrasted with epistemology. Essentially, ontology is the study of what actually is. For most people, for most purposes, ontology ultimately comes down to physics.
  home.comcast.net/~johnrgregg/glossary.htm
• A partial specification of a conceptual vocabulary to be used for formulating knowledge-level theories about a domain of discourse. The fundamental role of an ontology is to support knowledge sharing and reuse.
  kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/irs/glossary.html
• The branch of metaphysics concerned with the question of the sorts of things that exist.
  info1.nwmissouri.edu/~rfield/gloss.html
• The science of being in its most general aspects.
  radicalacademy.com/aipphilglossary2b.htm
• the collection of distinct entities that is considered to exist within a particular view of a portion of the universe.
  www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1284/glossdef.html
• the metaphysical study of the nature of being and existence
  www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.1
• In philosophy, ontology (from the Greek ων = being and λόγος = word/speech) is the most fundamental branch of metaphysics. It studies being or existence as well as the basic categories thereof -- trying to find out what entities and what types of entities exist. Ontology has strong implications for the conceptions of reality.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology
• In computer science, an ontology is the attempt to formulate an exhaustive and rigorous conceptual schema within a given domain, a typically hierarchical data structure containing all the relevant entities and their relationships and rules (theorems, regulations) within that domain. The computer science usage of the term ontology is derived from the much older usage of the term in philosophy, where it means the study of being or existence as well as the basic categories thereof. See ontology (p
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology_(computer_science)

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Definitions of epistemology on the Web:

• the study or theory of the origin, nature, methods, and limits of knowledge (study of knowledge).
  www.summit.org/resource/dictionary/
• (Greek episteme, "knowledge"; logos, "theory"), branch of philosophy that addresses the philosophical problems surrounding the theory of knowledge. Epistemology is concerned with the definition of knowledge and related concepts, the sources and criteria of knowledge, the kinds of knowledge possible and the degree to which each is certain, and the exact relation between the one who knows and the object known.
  www.levity.com/mavericks/glossary.htm
• The study of the nature knowledge and justification, and the extent to which we have either.
  philosophy.wlu.edu/gregoryp/class/fall02/313/glossary.html
• The philosophical discipline which examines the nature of human knowledge and cognition.
  dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/theology/theo305/glossary.htm
• A branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge. The study of how we know what we know.
  www.neiu.edu/~dbehrlic/hrd408/glossary.htm
• Branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge and justification.
  philosophy.berkeley.edu/macfarlane/25a/glossary.shtml
• A major branch of philosophy that concerns the forms, nature, and preconditions of knowledge. <Discussion> <References> Pete Mandik
  www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/E.html
• (The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.)
  www.theexperiment.org/energylanguage/definitions_list.php
• the study of human knowing, regarding its bases, forms, and criteria.
  www.atf.org.au/papers/glossary.asp
• The branch of philosophy which is concerned with the theory of knowledge, or more specifically, the question, "How can we know?"
  www.apologetics.org/glossary.html
• Epistemology is derived from the two Greek words e)pisth/mwn(epistemon) meaning "understanding" and lo/goj(logos) meaning "word." Epistemology is the science of knowledge. Epistemology seeks to find the true assumptions that account for reality. Biblical epistemology acknowledges that apart from God's personal self-revelation in His word and by His Spirit, no man can make right judgments about God, himself, or any of God's creation.
  www.two-age.org/glossary.htm
• The theoretical study of knowledge:? what knowledge is; how it might be assessed; what the grounds/assumptions for an idea might be; what claims to truth might be made; whether true knowledge can be achieved.
  www.adamranson.freeserve.co.uk/critical%20concepts.htm
• One of the major branches of philosophy, most often contrasted with ontology. Epistemology is the study of how we know what we know.
  home.comcast.net/~johnrgregg/glossary.htm
• the science of the origins, nature, methods and limits of human constructs of knowledge, evaluating the veracity of human knowledge.
  mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/glossar/web/glossar.htm
• the peculiar knowledge structure of a particular view of a portion of the universe.
  www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1284/glossdef.html
• the science of the method or grounds of knowledge.
  www.madison.k12.wi.us/west/science/biotech/vocabulary.htm
• refers to the philosophical theory of knowledge, consisting of attempts to answer questions about how we can know what we know, and whether this knowledge is reliable or not. Debates about the adequacy of empiricism, for example, are epistemological debates.
  www.brunel.ac.uk/~hsstcfs/glossary.htm
• The branch of philosophy that investigates the possibility, origins, nature, and extent of human knowledge.
  www.msu.edu/~susse/PHL200-Glossary.html
• The branch of philosophy that involves the study of knowledge.
  www.abdn.ac.uk/philosophy/guide/glossary.shtml
• A branch of philosophy that studies human knowledge, its nature, sources, and limits. From the Greek word 'episteme' meaning knowledge or understanding.
  www.scu.edu/pm/resources/theoglossary/print.html
• The branch of philosophy that investigates the nature, source, and limits of knowledge. Knowledge in epistemology is primarily construed as "knowledge that" a statement is true or false.
  instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/glossary.html
• "a concept in philosophy that relates to theories of knowledge or how people come to have knowledge of the world....refer to particular perspectives in scientific methods that led to acquisition of knowledge in a discipline" (Powers & Knapp, 1990, p. 45).
  classes.kumc.edu/son/nrsg748/TheoryTerminologyAnswers.htm
• The study of knowledge and how individuals gain knowledge.
  occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/faigley_awl/chapter4/medialib/proj4/basic_philosophical_terms.htm
• n. epistemological, adj. The theory of human knowledge; the basis of the sciences of man which is concerned with the origin, structure, methods and validity of human knowledge. It deals with the mental phenomena of human life: thinking, perceiving and knowing. It assumes that the logical structure of the human mind is unchanging. [Further reading see Epistemological Problems of Economics ] UF. 1-2.
  https://www.mises.org/easier/E.asp
• Studies the relationship between the researcher and knowledge, posing questions such as, are researchers and the objects of study seperate, independent elements, or is bias, or influence by the researcher on the studied objects inevitable.
  www.stile.coventry.ac.uk/cbs/staff/g_urwin/glossary.htm
• the philosophical theory of knowledge
  www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.1
• EpistemeEpistemology (from the Greek words episteme=science and logos=word/speech) is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin and scope of knowledge.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology

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Definitions of positivism on the Web:

• The theory that genuine knowledge is acquired by science and that metaphysical speculation has no validity. Positivism, based largely on the ideas of the French philosopher Auguste Comte, was adopted by many Latin American intellectuals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chilean positivists promoted secular education, free inquiry, the scientific method, and social reform.
  www.country-data.com/frd/cs/chile/cl_glos.html
• the restriction of philosophy to problems open to scientific methods.
  www.willdurant.com/glossary.htm
• A philosophical movement that spread throughout the Western world in the latter half of the 19th century. It holds science to be the only valid source of knowledge, and philosophy to be rightfully the search for general principles common to all sciences. Evolutionary positivism, stemming from the work of geologist Charles Lyell and the theory of biological evolution, held that there was a natural, necessary process of progress in the entire universe, beginning with the formation of the cosmos and culminating in human history.
  www.sff.net/people/gunn/dd/p.htm
• Branch of philosophy which emphasises the observable and factual over the theoretical or metaphysical.
  www.adamranson.freeserve.co.uk/critical%20concepts.htm
• A widespread trend in bourgeois philosophy and sociology, founded by Comte (1798-1857), a French philosopher and sociologist. The positivists deny the possibility of knowing inner regularities and relations and deny the significance of philosophy as a method of knowing and changing the objective world. They reduce philosophy to a summary of the data provided by the various branches of science and to a superficial description of the results of direct observation -- ie, to "positive" facts. Positivism considers itself to be "above" both materialism and idealism but it is actually nothing more than a variety of subjective idealism. Positivism claims
  www.newyouth.com/archives/theory/glossary/p.asp
• A form of naturalism which denies the legitimacy of philosophical problems and methods and claims that science is the only knowledge which is exact and ultimate.
  radicalacademy.com/aipphilglossary3.htm
• theoretical position that explanations must be empirically verifiable, that there are universal laws in the structure and transformation of human institutions, and that theories which incorporate individualistic elements, such as minds, are not verifiable.
  farahsouth.cgu.edu/dictionary/
• in its looser sense has come to mean an approach to social enquiry that emphasizes the discovery of laws of society, often involving an empiricist commitment to naturalism and quantitative methods. The word has become almost a term of abuse amongst social and cultural researchers, losing its philosophical connotations where its meaning is both more complex and precise.
  www.brunel.ac.uk/~hsstcfs/glossary.htm
• knowledge of the world is obtained through applying the scientific method to experiences (observations) perceived through the natural senses; relationships (including law-like relationships) are logically construed to make connections among observable phenomena
  www.clas.ufl.edu/users/sgillesp/Theory/2004discussiontopics/definitionsfor2.htm
• French philosophy based on observation and scientific approach to problems of society; adopted by many Latin American liberals in the aftermath of independence. (p. 766)
  occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/stearns_awl/medialib/glossary/gloss_P.html
• In theater history, the idea that history can be chronicled objectively and explained logically.
  highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072831820/student_view0/glossary.html
• Philosophic inquiry limited to problems open to scientific investigation. Traditional subjects such as *aesthetics and * metaphysics are dismissed as "meaningless" because their content cannot be subjected to verification.
  www.li.suu.edu/library/humtxt/glossary/glossary.htm
• A philosophical approach to research, adopting 'scientific' and rigerous methods. The approach is influenced by the researcher's ontological and epistemological positions, in other words, their views on reality and the independence of the researcher in relation to knowledge.
  www.stile.coventry.ac.uk/cbs/staff/g_urwin/glossary.htm
• the form of empiricism that bases all knowledge on perceptual experience (not on intuition or revelation)
• a quality or state characterized by certainty or acceptance or affirmation
  www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.1

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Definitions of feminism on the Web:

• The view, articulated in the 19th century, that women are inherently equal to men and deserve equal rights and opportunities. More recently, a social and political movement that took hold in the United States in the late 1960s, soon spreading globally.
  odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/LIT/chap10.htm
• (a) a range of contemporary theoretical perspectives (political, sociological, legal, psychoanalytic, literary, philosophical) in which women's experiences are examined in relation to actual and perceived differences between the power and status of men and women; (b) a social justice movement in which issues of particular importance for women (eg domestic violence, pay equity, globalization) are analysed, understood, and addressed from feminist perspectives. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the term was often used in compounds such as "lesbian feminism" and "eco-feminism."
  familypride.uwo.ca/glossary/glossary5.html
• Toril Moi distinguishes between femaleness (sex ? a biological category), femininity (gender ? a set of culturally defined characteristics) and feminism (a political position).
  www.adamranson.freeserve.co.uk/critical%20concepts.htm
• S__t happening is an act of the Goddess.
  www.dogchurch.org/restroom/feces.html
• a philosophy embracing economics, politics, literature and indeed every aspect of the humanities, and which seeks to posit women on an equal footing with men; and in doing so to show how men have established and reinforced their historical dominance. The development of feminism has been rapid since 1945 but was articulated much earlier by Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf.
  members.fortunecity.es/fabianvillegas/drama/glossary-f.htm
• advocacy of women's rights
  www.wolverhamptonarchives.dial.pipex.com/local_women_glossary.htm
• The word feminism means many things to many people. Though Catherine MacKinnon's understanding of what feminism ought to mean does not represent all feminism, her definition of feminist theory is helpful as a general characterization: "A theory is feminist to the extent it is persuaded that women have been unjustly unequal to men because of the social meaning of their bodies" (35). Thus, feminism is any "system" of thought or political or social movement that incorporates the assumption that "women have been unjustly unequal to men because of the social meaning of their bodies." Such movements, theories, etc. can range
  jamesfaulconer.byu.edu/definitions.htm
• A female focused version of Liberalism which intends to create its own religion based on "feminist theology" which purports to free itself from an "oppressive patriarchy." When analyzed, one will clearly find a new age pagan influence in their "new morality and spirituality" featuring, in many cases, "sacred prayer circles," "feminine deities" and "God as Mother." These traits are common with Wicca, a form of witchcraft.
  www.ourladyswarriors.org/dissent/defn.htm
• a doctrine that advocates equal rights for women
• feminist movement: the movement aimed at equal rights for women
  www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.1
• Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. While generally providing a critique of social relations, many proponents of feminism also focus on analyzing gender inequality and the promotion of women's rights, interests, and issues.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism

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Definitions of realism on the Web:

• A nineteenth-century European literary movement that sought to portray familiar characters, situations, and settings in a realistic manner. This was done primarily by using an objective narrative point of view and through the buildup of accurate detail. The standard for success of any realistic work depends on how faithfully it transfers common experience into fictional forms. The realistic method may be altered or extended, as in stream of consciousness writing, to record highly subjective experience. Seminal authors in the tradition of Realism include Honore de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, and Henry James.
  www.galegroup.com/free_resources/glossary/glossary_qr.htm
• A style of painting which depicts subject matter (form, color, space) as it appears in actuality or ordinary visual experience without distortion or stylization.
  www.progressiveart.com/art_terms.htm
• the attempt to portray an accurate representation of nature and real life without idealization
  www.iclasses.org/assets/literature/literary_glossary.cfm
• a variety of doctrines in different areas of philosophy holding that entities or facts of contested sorts exist. There are, of course, different arguments concerning the reality of numbers in mathematics, the reality of moral facts in ethics, and the reality of time in physics or metaphysics. The kind of reality ascribed to universals differs from the kind of reality seen as belonging to common-sense material objects or to theoretical entities in science. Various realisms are hence opposed by nominalism, idealism, instrumentalism, reductionism, eliminativism, conventionalism, constructivism, relativism and anti-realism. Kant argued for both empirical realism and transcendental idealism
  www.filosofia.net/materiales/rec/glosaen.htm
• a way of viewing scientific theories and models that says they truly characterize the way the universe operates; they represent reality (contrast with instrumentalism).
  www.astronomynotes.com/glossary/glossr.htm
• a theatrical practice valuing direct imitation, concerned with psychological motives, the 'iiner reality," and less committed to achieving a superficial verisimilitude.
  method.vtheatre.net/dict.html
• Writing that represents events and people in a way that resembles the/an external reality and human experience outside the text. See Verisimilitude.
  www.viterbo.edu/personalpages/faculty/jwood/vocabulary%20page.htm
• Art which aims at the reproduction of reality. In popular usage, the opposite of abstraction. Also, a movement among nineteenth-century French artists who rejected the emotionalism and idealism of romantic art.
  www.nga.gov/education/american/aaglossary.shtm
• 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. <Discussion> < References> Pete Mandik
  www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/R.html
• 1830-1905 - Ushered in by the Industrial Revolution and growing Nationalism in the world. Began in France. Attempts to portray the speech and mannerisms of everyday people in everyday life. Tends to focus on middle class social and domestic problems. Plays by Isben are an example. Naturalism is a more extreme version of Realism that followed it briefly. Impressionism, based on 'scientific' knowledge and discoveries concerns observing nature and reality objectively.
  www.knowlex.org/lang/en/lexikon/Cultural_movement.html
• filming so that the reality outside the camera is shown in a neutral style with as little distortion and interference as possible; realism is attained by long, uninterrupted takes, deep focus shots, and other filmic techniques; contrast to expressionism; similar to the 'reality' of docudramas Examples: Woody Allen's Husbands And Wives (1992); Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage (1973)
  www.filmsite.org/filmterms15.html
• In his manifesto Le Realisme (1857), the French novelist Champfleury emphasized sincerity, as opposed to the Romantic emphasis on liberty. Reflecting the popular interest in science and positivism, it insisted that novels have accurate documentation, sociological insight, accumulated details of material fact, and avoidance of idealization and poetic diction. Subjects were to be taken from every day life, especially from lower-class life. Balzac and Stendhal have been named as precursors of Realism, and Flaubert as a practitioner.
  www.sff.net/people/gunn/dd/r.htm
• A very general style in which the artwork accurately depicts nature. The term originated in 19 th century France, specifically with the painter Gustave Courbet. The style was popular through the 1950’s, when it was almost eliminated from critical consideration. It resurfaced in the 1960’s with Pop Art and the "new realism."
  art.abbottpages.com/glossary.html
• in epistemology, the doctrine that the external world exists independently of perception; in logic, the doctrine that universal or class ideas (eg, man) have objective realities corresponding to them.
  www.willdurant.com/glossary.htm
• A STYLE of art in which the subject is portrayed as closely as possible to the way the human eye sees it.
  www.artsmia.org/art_in_america/glossary.html
• a depiction of existence as it appears, without euphemism or evasion; evokes the idea that the things or occurrence that are portrayed may actually exist. A key component of naturalist writing.
  sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Essays/glossary.html
• A style in art and literature emphasizing the faithful representation of human life and social reality; realist artists often focused on the plight of the poor and the working classes and called for social reforms and the end of exploitation and injustice; preferred subjects include the normal, the everyday, the humble, the common, the practical; realism encourages an objective perspective and somewhat detached position on the part of the artist or author.
  fajardo-acosta.com/worldlit/glossary.htm
• Term measuring the historical fidelity of a rules system (or, for a non- historical game, how "real" the rules seem to be). Some game designers believe they can raise the realism of their games by adding rules of great complexity. Some gamers desire historical accuracy in their games, while others would rather have an enjoyable game experience at the possible expense of realism. Reenactment
  theminiaturespage.com/ref/glossary.html
• the attempt to represent people, objects, or places in a realistic manner as opposed to an idealized way; also, a later 19th century art movement in France which objected to the idealized style of Romanticism by creating works that depicted a more true view of everyday life. Realism art from worldimages gallery
  www.worldimages.com/art_glossary.php
• The representation of life as found in nature or society without idealization or abstraction.
  www.ncmoa.org/matisse/lessons/glossary.html
• A style of art that represent nature accurately as seen by the human eye.
  www.artsconnected.org/artsnetmn/environ/envvocab.html
• used here to mean appearing realistic, representing how things appear to the eye, as opposed to non-representational or abstract art.
  www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Holman/english/glossary.php3
• 19th-century art movement in which artists focused attention on ordinary people, such as peasants and laborers, who had not been pictured in art up to that time. Realists depicted real scenes from contemporary life, from city street scenes to country funerals. They tried to show the beauty in the commonplace, refusing to idealize or gloss over reality as Neoclassical and Romantic artists had.
  www.ket.org/artstoolkit/varts/glossary.htm
• This word, in terrns of game systems, can have various, subtly divergent, meanings. Early in the history of role-playing, it was often taken literally, so that criticisms of rules as 'unrealistic' were dismissed with the comment that magic and the like, which loom large in games, are not 'real'. However, even on those terrns it is possible to argue for realism in the depiction of non-fantastical elements such as weights and measurements of mundane items, and 'realism' was soon consciously redefined as something like 'fidelity to the implicit laws of nature in the fictional genre being simulated'.
  www.mud.co.uk/richard/ifan394.htm
• a writing style that represents life in literature, which is bent on giving the illusion that it reflects life as it seems to the common reader. The subject of realism is rendered in such a way as to give the reader the illusion of actual experience.
  www.indiana.edu/~bestsell/glossary.html
• the attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth
• (philosophy) the philosophical doctrine that physical object continue to exist when not perceived
• reality: the state of being actual or real; "the reality of his situation slowly dawned on him"
• naturalism: an artistic movement in 19th century France; artists and writers strove for detailed realistic and factual description
  www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.1
• Realism is commonly defined as a concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary. However, the term realism is used, with varying meanings, in several of the liberal arts; particularly painting, literature, and philosophy. It is also used in international relations.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism
• Philosophical realism refers to various philosophically unrelated positions, in some cases diametrically opposed ones, which are termed "realism." In large measure this depends on which debates are active at the time, and may be encouraged by the fact that a philosophical position often looks stronger if one attaches the word "real" to it.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(philosophical)

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Definitions of postmodernism on the Web:

• Writing from the 1960s forward characterized by experimentation and continuing to apply some of the fundamentals of modernism, which included existentialism and alienation. Postmodernists have gone a step further in the rejection of tradition begun with the modernists by also rejecting traditional forms, preferring the anti-novel over the novel and the anti-hero over the hero. Postmodern writers include Alain Robbe-Grillet, Thomas Pynchon, Margaret Drabble, John Fowles, Adolfo Bioy-Casares, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
  www.galegroup.com/free_resources/glossary/glossary_p.htm
• A relativistic system of observation and thought that denies absolutes and objectivity. Postmodernism has influenced theology, art, culture, architecture, society, film, technology, and economics. Traditional social, art, social, and cultural, constructs are discarded and reinterpreted in relativistic terms. An example of postmodern thought would be the validation of homosexuality as an equally legitimate sexual expression over and against the Judeo-Christian ethic of heterosexual monogamy. In other words, previously taboo practices and beliefs are given equal validity to traditional values and norms often to the point of displacing the latter. This equalization and displacement are not restricted to religious realms
  www.carm.org/dictionary/dic_p-r.htm
• if Descartes is seen as the father of modernism, then postmodernism is a variety of cultural positions which reject major features of Cartesian (or allegedly Cartesian) modern thought. Hence, views which, for example, stress the priority of the social to the individual; which reject the universalizing tendencies of philosophy; which prize irony over knowledge; and which give the irrational equal footing with the rational in our decision procedures all fall under the postmodern umbrella.
  www.filosofia.net/materiales/rec/glosaen.htm
• 1965-? - A reaction to Modernism, in a way, Postmodernism largely discards the notion that artists should seek pure fundamentals, often questioning whether such fundamentals even exist - or suggestion that if they do exist, they may be irrelevant. Exemplified by movements such as deconstruction, conceptual art, etc.
  www.knowlex.org/lang/en/lexikon/Cultural_movement.html
• A cultural and intellectual trend of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries characterized by emphasis on the ideas of the decenteredness of meaning, the value and autonomy of the local and the particular, the infinite possibilities of the human existence, and the coexistence, in a kind of collage or pastiche, of different cultures, perspectives, time periods, and ways of thinking. Postmodernism claims to address the sense of despair and fragmentation of modernism through its efforts at reconfiguring the broken pieces of the modern world into a multiplicity of new social, political, and cultural arrangements.
  fajardo-acosta.com/worldlit/glossary.htm
• is still a much debated term within the history of art. When it started, what it means, and even whether or not it exists at all are all questions still asked by many artists and academics alike. In general terms any work of art made after the Modernist era should be considered postmodern. A reasonable assertion would be that the term was first applied to a trend in the architecture of the late sixties. This new form of creation concerned itself with combining styles of past movements and allowed for the viewer to assert her own interpretation as an important
  www.usi.edu/artdept/artinindiana/Glossary/glossary.html
• Magical realism is often considered, as a genre, a subcategory of postmodern fiction due it its challenge to hegemony and its use of techniques similar to those of other postmodernist texts, such as the distortion of time.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism
• unlike Modernism, Postmodernism starts from the assumption that grand utopias are impossible. It accepts that reality is fragmented and that personal identity is an unstable quantity transmitted by a variety of cultural factors. Postmodernism advocates an irreverent, playful treatment of one's own identity, and a liberal society.
  www.ffotogallery.org/th-edu/glossary.htm
• Beckett’s theater articulates the postmodernist aesthetic, using stylistic quotation; invocation and disengagement from history; fragmentation of artistic medium.
  www.english.uiuc.edu/lit_resources/English%20102/Miscellaneous/Terms/samuel_beckett_terms.htm
• A style of music that consciously draws from elements of other styles
  www.outsideshore.com/school/music/almanac/html/glossary/indexc.htm
• late-twentieth-century critical, literary, and performance movement that reacts to modern art and literature; postmodernists suggest that truth is no longer verifiable, and that new art forms are best created by freely mixing previous styles and themes.
  filmplus.org/thr/dic4.html
• a term offered by literary historians to refer from the period from the WWII until the present. It encompasses everything from literature to film, art, architecture, and popular culture. Postmodernism describes an age transformed by information technology, shaped by electronic images, and fascinated by popular culture.
  www.csub.edu/~dmoton/glossary_of_literary_terms.htm
• a social movement or fashion amongst intellectuals centring around a rejection of modernist values of rationality, progress and a conception of social science as a search for over-arching explanations of human nature or the social and cultural world. By contrast, postmodernists celebrate the fall of such oppressive grand narratives, emphasizing the fragmented and dispersed nature of contemporary experience.
  www.brunel.ac.uk/~hsstcfs/glossary.htm
• A worldview that emphasizes the existence of different worldviews and concepts of reality, rather than one "correct or true" one. Whereas modernism emphasized a trust in the empirical scientific method, and a distrust and lack of faith in ideologies and religious beliefs that could not be tested using scientific methods; postmodernism emphasizes that a particular reality is a social construction by a particular group, community, or class of persons. See the Preface and the first two parts of Anderson's book: "Reality Isn't What It Used To Be", and the Introduction and first three sections of Anderson's book: The Truth
  www.greeleynet.com/~cnotess/gloss.htm
• In English departments, "critical theory" (see separate notes on critical theory), "deconstructionism," "postmodernism," "literary theory," or just "theory" is a form of relativism. Peter in Who's to Say? espouses this view. He claims that fundamental notions like reality, truth, rationality, contradiction, etc., apply only within linguistic or cultural frameworks ("meta-narratives"), and that science is just one of many possible frameworks, and is thus not privileged.
  instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/glossary.html
• a philosophy that holds that the traits associated with twentieth-century modernism, such as belief in the possibility of managing social change according to sets of agreed principles, are now in retreat in the face of increasing individualism, pluralism and eclecticism.
  media.pearsoncmg.com/intl/ema/uk/0131217666/student/0131217666_glo.html
• Postmodernism, like modernism, rejects boundaries between high and low forms of art, rejects rigid genre distinctions, emphasizes pastiche, parody, bricolage, irony, and playfulness. Postmodern art (and thought) favors reflexivity and self-consciousness, fragmentation and discontinuity (especially in narrative structures), ambiguity, simultaneity, and an emphasis on the destructured, decentered, dehumanized subject.
  www.fpsct.org/fhs/painting/dictionary.html
• genre of art and literature and especially architecture in reaction against principles and practices of established modernism
  www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.1
• Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated pomo) is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism
• Postmodern music is both a musical style and a musical condition. As a musical style, postmodern music contain characteristics of postmodern art—that is, art after modernism (see Modernism in Music). It favors eclecticism in form and musical genre, and often combines characteristics from different genres, or employs jump-cut sectionalization. It tends to be self-referential and ironic, and it blurs the boundaries between "high art" and kitsch. Daniel Albright (2004) summarizes the traits o
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism_(music)