Do social structures exist only in the mind?
Answering with a “no” establishes an ontological realism, which assumes that entities such as structures exist independently of the mind. With regard to the label “realism” a caveat is necessary: there exist more than thirty kinds of realism, which sometimes stand in stark contrast to one another. For example, the range goes from a “natural realism” stating that things are how we perceive them, via Kant’s “transcendental realism” to Peirce’s “semiotic realism” which assumes that only relations are real (Hoffmann, Halbfass, Trappe, Grünewald, & Abel, 1992). Thus, “realism” cannot be regarded a proper description of a position in itself. Most versions developed in the 20 th century focus on epistemology without even providing a precise metaphysics. Some of these would even have difficulties accepting the metaphysical propositions that I describe in the following. I shall thus label the kind of realism I use “realism ME” indicating that I refer to the medieval universalist realism. This r
