Gottfried Leibniz expressed a form of Idealism known as Panpsychism. This kind of Idealism led to the Pantheism of Spinoza. Thus, Descartes can be considered an early epistemological idealist.ĭescartes' student, Nicolas Malebranche, refined this theory to state that we only directly know internally the ideas in our mind anything external is the result of God's operations, and all activity only appears to occur in the external world. Therefore, he claimed, it is possible to doubt the reality of the external world as consisting of real objects, and “I think, therefore I am” is the only assertion that cannot be doubted. René Descartes was one of the first to claim that all we really know is what is in our own consciousnesses, and that the whole external world is merely an idea or picture in our minds. However, his doctrine was not fully-realized, and he made no attempt to discover how we can get beyond our ideas in order to know external objects. The Neo-Platonist Plotinus came close to an early exposition of Idealism in the contentions in his "Enneads" that "the only space or place of the world is the soul", and that " time must not be assumed to exist outside the soul". However, it has been argued that Plato believed that "full reality" (as distinct from mere existence) is achieved only through thought, and so he could be described as a non-subjective, "transcendental" idealist, somewhat like Kant. This is because, although his doctrine described Forms or universals (which are certainly non-material "ideals" in a broad sense), Plato maintained that these Forms had their own independent existence, which is not an idealist stance, but a realist one. Plato is one of the first philosophers to discuss what might be termed Idealism, although his Platonic Idealism is, confusingly, usually referred to as Platonic Realism. Other labels which are essentially equivalent to Idealism include Mentalism and Immaterialism. Idealism is a label which covers a number of philosophical positions with quite different tendencies and implications, including Subjective Idealism, Objective Idealism, Transcendental Idealism and Absolute Idealism, as well as several more minor variants or related concepts (see the section on Other Types of Idealism below). The word "ideal" is also commonly used as an adjective to designate qualities of perfection, desirability and excellence, which is totally foreign to the epistemological use of the word "idealism", which pertains to internal mental representations. In general parlance, "idealism" is also used to describe a person's high ideals (principles or values actively pursued as a goal), sometimes with the connotation that those ideals are unrealizable or impractical. Some Hindu denominations are idealistic in outlook, although some have favored a form of Dualism, as with Christianity. It is a major tenet in the early Yogacara school of Buddhism, which developed into the mainstream Mahayana school.
It is also contrasted with Realism (which holds that things have an absolute existence prior to, and independent of, our knowledge or perceptions).Ī broad enough definition of Idealism could include many religious viewpoints, although an Idealistic viewpoint need not necessarily include God, supernatural beings, or an existence after death. Idealism is a form of Monism (as opposed to Dualism or Pluralism), and stands in direct contrast to other Monist beliefs such as Physicalism and Materialism (which hold that the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is physical matter). Thus, the only real things are mental entities, not physical things (which exist only in the sense that they are perceived). Essentially, it is any philosophy which argues that the only thing actually knowable is consciousness (or the contents of consciousness), whereas we never can be sure that matter or anything in the outside world really exists. Idealism is the metaphysical and epistemological doctrine that ideas or thoughts make up fundamental reality. Introduction | History of Idealism | Subjective Idealism | Transcendental Idealism | Objective Idealism | Absolute Idealism | Other Types of Idealism
By Branch / Doctrine > Metaphysics > Idealism