All realism derives from the analysis of knowledge; all idealism derives from the analysis of a thought. - Étienne Gilson

Reality can be grasped at levels of different depths. It is immediately given to us in a kind of block form, which is simply the "apprehended reality".

Most of our contemporaries think that, at bottom, being a philosopher and adopting an idealist method are one and the same thing.

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 [being].