ABSTRACT
The philosophical literature on realism and anti-realism presents its subject as involving a number of issues and a number of ongoing disputes. These include realism in the philosophy of science, mathematical realism, moral realism and realism in the philosophy of language. This chapter discusses the issue of realism and anti-realism together with John McDowell's views on direct realism. It focuses on issues concerning the notion of world follows, and the chapter concludes with a synthesis of McDowell's and Heidegger's thought on the concept of 'being-in-the world'. McDowell's views on openness to experience do not distinguish between different perceptual experiences such as veridical and non-veridical perception. Heidegger's views on the consequent problems for philosophy raised by the dominance of the theoretical could also be compared to McDowell's views on the mistaken emphasis which is often attributed to a scientific world view.
