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Consequences of Losing Epistemological Realism’s Primacy

Rise of Skepticism:

Loss of confidence in objective knowledge about reality.
Increased reliance on relativism & subjectivity in philosophy, ethics & science.

Fragmentation of Disciplines:

Philosophy split into multiple schools (analytic, continental, pragmatist), with no common grounding in realism.

Disciplines like ethics & political theory struggled to justify universal claims without appealing to an objective reality.

Challenges to Moral Realism:

Ethical realism faced difficulties as philosophers questioned the possibility of objective moral truths without epistemological realism.

Postmodern Critiques:

Postmodernism capitalized on the decline of realism, critiquing “grand narratives” & asserting that all knowledge is socially constructed.