Realism

Introduction
Realism is the belief that the world exists independent of the mind.  Many philosophers wrote about it and debated its validity.   There are many different types of realism.  It even goes beyond philosophy. Realism is sweet, but it is a bit short sided.  I will explain why in detail later.

History
Plato was a realist/idealist.  He believed in universals.  Universals were the essence of objects.  Universals exist outside spacetime.  Aristotle was a moderate realist.  Moderate realists saw universals as concepts in the mind and objects existing outside the mind.  Plato believed in moral realism.  That is logic being applied to morality.  The idea is morality exists independent of our mind.      

Realism was discussed in ancient India.  Nyaya is a Hindu philosophy that is realistic.  Nyaya has several items that are independent of the mind.  Knowledge comes from sensory perception. People that follow Mimamsa believe perception is the bridge between the subject to object.  That is so true!!!!

Some European philosophers expounded upon realism.  Bertrand Russell was a famous realist philosopher. He wrote a book called the Principle of Mathematics.  In it he rejected idealism.  He believed some things will always be true no matter what people think.

Different Types of Realism
Transcendental Realism: People comprehend that their minds are limited in obtaining knowledge.

Organic Realism: Change is a fundamental part of the universal.  Perception causes the subject and object to merge.  We are the world and the world is us.

Epistemology Realism: Knowledge of an object is independent of the mind.

Indirect Realism: The world we perceive is not the real world.  We only see our interpretation of it.

New Realism: What we know about an object is real.  It's not a creation of our mind.

Political Realism: The belief that countries only care about power and security.  They don't care about ethics.
Liberal Realism: States can work together harmoniously with diplomacy.

Christian Realism: The Kingdom of Heaven can't exist on earth because society is corrupt.

Mystical Realism: Divine beings exist, but they are mostly unperceivable.

Critical Realism: Reality is independant of our mind.  Some of our sense-data about the world is correct. Some of it isn't.

Naive Realism: Our common sense is the true reality.

Hyper-Realism: The mind doesn't know the difference between reality and fantasy.

Scientific Realism: Science offers the best description of the world.

Constructive Realism: Knowledge is created by our mind.

Mathematical Realism: Math is objective truth.  It is independent of the mind.

Legal Realism: Laws can be unjust because of human shortcomings.    

Shortcomings of Realism
Realism is the idea that world is outside of mind.  This seems to be true.  Our perception of the world comes from our brain.  How can the world exist outside of us while we can only make sense of it by something inside of us?  Realism is a good ideology, but it is incomplete.

Conclusion
Realism is great!  I like a lot of its ideas.  I used to only be a realist.  Now I'm idealist too.  They go together like yin-yang.
 
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_realism
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/perception-india/#NyaRea
http://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_realism.html
https://philosophynow.org/issues/114/The_Philosophy_of_Organism