Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun philosophy The belief that phenomenalism and physicalism are alternative "world-versions", both useful in some circumstances, but neither capable of fully capturing the other.
  • noun art A style that features an estrangement from our generally accepted sense of reality.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

irreal +‎ -ism

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Examples

  • The events are farcical even at their darkest, artificed to an utter irrealism.

    Notes on Strange Fiction: Postmodern(ism) Hal Duncan 2008

  • The events are farcical even at their darkest, artificed to an utter irrealism.

    Archive 2008-08-01 Hal Duncan 2008

  • Since non-cognitivism is a species of irrealism about ethics, it should be unsurprising that many of its main motivations overlap with those for other versions of ethical irrealism, especially with those for error theories.

    Boys in White Suits 2009

  • Non-cognitivism is a variety of irrealism about ethics with a number of influential variants.

    Boys in White Suits 2009

  • But as discussed in section 4.1, it is far from clear how much support evolutionary biology itself lends to moral anti-realism or irrealism.

    Morality and Evolutionary Biology FitzPatrick, William 2008

  • This does suggest an irrealism at least with respect to the sorts of things Fodor and Dretske take beliefs to be; though it is not the view that there is simply nothing in the world that makes intentional explanations true.

    Mental Representation Pitt, David 2008

  • If naturalist realism about mathematics is thus ruled out, the remaining options are irrealism and non-naturalist realism.

    Naturalism Papineau, David 2007

  • There is more to say about the relative merits of naturalist realism and naturalist irrealism, but we cannot pursue the topic further here.

    Naturalism Papineau, David 2007

  • This topic is orthogonal to the issue of realism versus irrealism, and there is no question of pursuing it in any detail here, but one particular aspect is worth remarking on.

    Naturalism Papineau, David 2007

  • This position agrees with moral non-naturalism against irrealism that moral properties really exist, but seeks to locate them in the natural realm rather than in some sui generis non-natural realm.

    Naturalism Papineau, David 2007

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