Étienne Gilson: Ideal

“As used today, the word realism means in the first place the opposite to idealism when it claims that it is possible to pass from the subject to the object.”

Étienne Gilson

Methodical Realism

“Indeed, all idealism derives from Descartes, or from Kant, or from both together, and whatever other distinguishing features a system may have, it is idealist to the extent that, either in itself, or as far as we are concerned, it makes knowing the condition of being.”

Étienne Gilson

Methodical Realism

“The mathematician always proceeds from thought to being or things. Consequently, critical idealism was born the day Descartes decided that the mathematical method must henceforth be the method for metaphysics.”

Étienne Gilson

Methodical Realism

Mathematics

“All realism derives from the analysis of knowledge; all idealism derives from the analysis of a thought.”

Étienne Gilson

Methodical Realism

Knowledge

“I maintain, therefore, that just as there is in Cartesianism a methodical idealism, the kind that starts with nosse [knowing], there can be a methodical realism, the kind that starts with esse”

Étienne Gilson

being
Methodical Realism