Idealism

Overview

Idealism is a philosophical and epistemological doctrine that asserts that reality, or reality as humans can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing. In contrast to Materialism, idealism asserts the primacy of consciousness as the origin and prerequisite of material phenomena.

Historical Background

The earliest extant arguments that the world of experience is grounded in the mental derive from India and Greece. The Hindu idealists in India and the Greek Neoplatonists gave panentheistic arguments for an all-pervading consciousness as the ground or true nature of reality.

In the West, the most well-known idealism is that of Immanuel Kant, who argued that our experience is not of things in themselves, but of phenomena, appearances in our minds. This form of idealism is termed "transcendental idealism".

Types of Idealism

Idealism can be categorized into several types based on various criteria such as the aspect of idealism emphasized, the interpretation of the ideal, and the metaphysical views associated with the ideal.

Subjective Idealism

Subjective idealism, or empirical idealism, is the monistic metaphysical doctrine that only minds and mental contents exist. It entails and is generally identified or associated with immaterialism, the doctrine that material things do not exist.

Objective Idealism

Objective idealism asserts that the reality of experiencing combines and transcends the realities of the object experienced and of the mind of the observer. This philosophy was developed by Plato and was first dubbed “objective idealism” by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling in Germany.

Transcendental Idealism

Transcendental idealism, advocated by Immanuel Kant, is the view that our experience of things is about how they appear to us, not about those things as they are in and of themselves. This view is contrasted with Kant's empirical realism.

Absolute Idealism

Absolute idealism is an ontologically monistic philosophy chiefly associated with Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, both of whom were German idealist philosophers in the 19th century.

Idealism in Modern Philosophy

In modern philosophy, idealism has been very influential, shaping many schools of thought. Notable among these are the British idealists, such as F. H. Bradley and J. M. E. McTaggart, who were influenced by Hegel, and the American idealists, such as Josiah Royce, who were influenced by the German tradition.

Critiques of Idealism

Idealism has been critiqued by many philosophers from various philosophical schools. Realists, materialists, and dualists, for example, all oppose idealism for different reasons, ranging from the denial of the existence of a mind-independent reality to the assertion of the impossibility of knowing anything outside of our minds.