Defn: Arsenic sulphide, a mineral of a brilliant red color; red orpiment. It is also an artificial product.
REALISM
Re"al*ism, n. Etym: [Cf. F. réalisme.]
1. (Philos.) (a) An opposed to nominalism, the doctrine that genera and species are real things or entities, existing independently of our conceptions. According to realism the Universal exists ante rem (Plato), or in re (Aristotle). (b) As opposed to idealism, the doctrine that in sense perception there is an immediate cognition of the external object, and our knowledge of it is not mediate and representative.
2. (Art & Lit.)
Defn: Fidelity to nature or to real life; representation without idealization, and making no appeal to the imagination; adherence to the actual fact.
REALIST
Re"al*ist, n. Etym: [Cf. F. réaliste.]
1. (Philos.)
Defn: One who believes in realism; esp., one who maintains that generals, or the terms used to denote the genera and species of things, represent real existences, and are not mere names, as maintained by the nominalists.
2. (Art. & Lit.)
Defn: An artist or writer who aims at realism in his work. See
Realism, 2.