4Western Philosophy: IdealismA Brief introduction to
Idealism:
Idealism is the oldest metaphysical and epistemological
doctrine, originated from ancient India in the East and from Plato
in the west. Idealism holds that ideas or thoughts make up
fundamental reality. Actually knowable thing is only consciousness.
Nothing can really exist outside of mind. Idealism stresses that
spirit or idea is the most important and essential element of the
life and the universe. In spite of having some different views on
idealism, idealist philosophers agree that:(1) The human spirit is
the most fundamental element in life (2) The universe is
essentially not material in its ultimate nature.
According to Idealism, Only ideas, spirit, or mind are real. In
contrast to materialism (belief in matter, nature or atoms as basic
entity of reality), idealism explains universe in the terms of
idea, spirit or mind. Plato, Descartes, Berkeley, Kant, Hegel,
Fichte, Schelling, Royce, Bradley and A.C Ewing are included in
idealist tradition. Each idealist philosopher defines the term
idealism in his own way. For example, Plato, instead of this
material world, preferred the world of ideas and forms as a real
word. Similarly, Berkeley relates ideas to perception in the sense
of knowing things. Hegel presents an example of objective idealism
(that idea exists objectively and evolves dialectically), Kant
present transcendental idealism while Brightman and Fiewelling
serve as sources for personal idealism. Idealism also holds that to
search for truth, mind and soul are more important than matter and
body because world of matter is changeable, imperfect and uncertain
while truth is eternal, perfect and certain. In other words,
Idealism may hold that(1) World or reality exists essentially as
spirit or consciousness (2) Abstractions and laws are more
fundamental in reality or at least that whatever exists is known in
chiefly mental dimensionsthrough and as ideas. Therefore we can say
that there are two basic forms of idealism.(1) Metaphysical
idealismAs metaphysics is a branch of philosophy which deals with
the questions about nature of ultimate reality, existence, being,
time and space etc, therefore we can say that metaphysical idealism
asserts the ideality of reality. Metaphysical idealism is directly
opposed to materialism, a view which emphasizes that basic
substance of the world is matter that can be only known in the
terms of material forms and process.(2) Epistemological IdealismAs
epistemology in philosophy deals with the nature and process of
knowledge, therefore epistemological idealism may be defined as a
form of idealism which asserts that true knowledge is achieved only
through ideas and mind. Epistemological idealism is opposed to
realism, a view which stresses that knowledge does not depend on
mind because things and objects exist outside of mind
independently. In short, realism holds that we can know things as
they are (in their real forms).
Idealism, often with its bold and expansive syntheses, is also
opposed to skepticism (a view that true knowledge of reality is
impossible) with some exceptions such as in the work of F.H
Bradley, positivism (a view that rejects the non-empirical and
non-verifiable knowledge such as metaphysics and theology on
scientific basis) and atheism (a view that denies existence of God
or an ultimate reality). Essence of Idealism: typical Tenets of
Idealism:To grasp essence of idealism we can see some of its
typical tenets: To be is to be perceived; Truth is the whole, or
the Absolute; reality reveals its ultimate nature more faithfully
in its highest qualities (mental) than in lowest (material); the
Ego is both subject and object.
1. The dialectic method
Dialectic is a fundamental process of thought and reality. It is
especially associated with Hegel. By this method we arrive at the
truth by: (1) Stating a thesis (e.g. subjective idea), (2)
developing an antithesis or contradiction of thesis (objective
idea), and (3) combining (both thesis & antithesis) and
resolving them into a coherent synthesis (absolute idea).
Therefore, idealism continually and dialectically creates new
knowledge which is integrated with earlier discoveries. Thus,
idealism is friendly to all quest for truth whether in the natural
or behavioral sciences or in art, religion, and philosophy. It
seeks the truth in every positive judgment and in its contradiction
(negation) as well. Thus dialectical method of idealism overcomes
contradictions in human knowledge and such removal leads to the
synthetic judgment with higher degree of truth (e.g. absolute idea)
than that of present in each of the two lower judgments which are
combined together dialectically (subjective idea and objective
idea).
2. The centrality of mind in knowledgeOther philosophy gives the
matter primacy over mind and they explain matter (a lower level of
reality) by mind (a higher level of reality). But idealism opposes
those philosophies and holds that lower is always explained by
higher i.e. matter can be explained by mind, but mind (higher)
cannot be explained by matter (lower). Therefore, idealism stresses
the centrality of mind metaphysically and epistemologically.
Basic arguments
Four basic arguments found in the literature of idealism may be
briefly summarized.
1. Esse est percipi: To be is to be perceived
For an object (table or tree) to exist, or for an object to be
real, object must be perceived by human mind or Ultimate Mind
(God). The existence (or being) is to be perceived/known by a mind.
In other words, if a thing exists, it means that a mind perceives
it. If I perceive (see or feel) a table in a room, it exists. It is
important to know that Berkeley says that when I leave the room,
table will not disappear but it will still exist because other
minds or an Ultimate Mind will perceive it. If no mind perceives
the table, then existence of table is impossible. Similarly an odor
exists, if it is perceived (smelt), a sound exists if it is heard
(perceived), a color exists if it can be perceived (seen) and so
on. If anything is not perceived, in other words if it is not seen,
heard, touched, tasted or smelt, then it does not exists.
In a nut shell, Berkeley says nothing can exist, if there is no
spiritual being (man or God) who experiences (or perceives) that
thing.
Types of Idealism
Subjective Idealism
Subjective Idealism (or Solipsism or Subjectivism or Dogmatic
Idealism or Immaterialism) is the doctrine that the mind and ideas
are the only things that can be definitely known to exist or have
any reality, and that knowledge of anything outside the mind is
unjustified. Thus, objects exist by virtue of our perception of
them, as ideas residing in our awareness and in the consciousness
of the Divine Being, or God.
Its main proponent was the 18th Century Irish philosopher Bishop
George Berkeley and he developed it out of the foundations of
Empiricism which he shared with other British philosophers like
John Locke and David Hume. Empiricism emphasizes the role of
experience and sensory perception in the formation of ideas, while
discounting the notion of innate ideas.
Berkeley believed that existence was tied to experience, and
that objects exist only as perception and not as matter separate
from perception. He claimed that "Esse est aut percipi aut
percipere" or "To be is to be perceived or to perceive". Thus, the
external world has only a relative and temporary reality. He argued
that if he or another person saw a table, for example, then that
table existed; however, if no one saw the table, then it could only
continue to exist if it was in the mind of God. Berkeley further
argued that it is God who causes us to experience physical objects
by directly willing us to experience matter (thus avoiding the
extra, unnecessary step of creating that matter).Transcendental
Idealism
Transcendental Idealism (or Critical Idealism) is the view that
our experience of things is about how they appear to us
(representations), not about those things as they are in and of
themselves. Transcendental Idealism, generally speaking, does not
deny that an objective world external to us exists, but argues that
there is a supra-sensible reality beyond the categories of human
reason which he called noumenon, roughly translated as the
"thing-in-itself". However, we can know nothing of these
"things-in-themselves" except that they can have no independent
existence outside of our thoughts, although they must exist in
order to ground the representations.
The doctrine was first introduced by Immanuel Kant (in his
"Critique of Pure Reason") and was also espoused by Johann Gottlieb
Fichte and Friedrich Schelling, and later resurrected in the 20th
Century by Edmund Husserl.
This type of Idealism is considered "transcendental" in that we
are in some respects forced into it by considering that our
knowledge has necessary limitations, and that we can never know
things as they really are, totally independent of us. The name may,
however, be considered counter-intuitive and confusing, and Kant
himself preferred the label Critical Idealism.Objective
Idealism
Objective Idealism is the view that the world "out there" is in
fact Mind communicating with our human minds. It postulates that
there is only one perceiver, and that this perceiver is one with
that which is perceived. It accepts common sense Realism (the view
that independent material objects exist), but rejects Naturalism
(the view that the mind and spiritual values have emerged from
material things).
Plato is regarded as one of the earliest representatives of
Objective Idealism (although it can be argued that Plato's
worldview was actually dualistic and not truly Idealistic). The
definitive formulation of the doctrine came from the German
Idealist Friedrich Schelling, and later adapted by G. W. F. Hegel
in his Absolute Idealism theory. More recent advocates have
included C. S. Peirce and Josiah Royce (1855 - 1916).
Schelling's Objective Idealism agrees with Berkeley that there
is no such thing as matter in the materialist sense, and that
spirit is the essence and whole of reality. However, he argued that
there is a perfect parallel between the world of nature and the
structure of our awareness of it. Although, this cannot be true of
an individual ego, it can be true of an absolute consciousness. He
also objected to the idea that God is separate from the world,
arguing that reality is a single, absolute, all-inclusive mind,
which he (and Hegel) referred to as "The Absolute Spirit" (or
simply "The Absolute").
According to Objective Idealism, the Absolute is all of reality:
no time, space, relation or event ever exists or occurs outside of
it. As the Absolute also contains all possibilities in itself, it
is not static, but constantly changing and progressing. Human
beings, planets and even galaxies are not separate beings, but part
of something larger, similar to the relation of cells or organs to
the whole body.
A general objection to Idealism is that it is implausible and
against common sense to think that there can be an analytic
reduction of the physical to the mental. Hegel's system of
Objective Idealism has also come under fire for merely substituting
the Absolute for God, which does not make anything clearer in the
end.Absolute Idealism
Absolute Idealism is the view formulated by G. W. F. Hegel, that
in order for human reason to be able to know the world at all,
there must be, in some sense, an identity of thought (subjective
idea) and being (objective idea); otherwise, we would never have
any means of access to the world, and we would have no certainty
about any of our knowledge. Like Plato, Hegel argued that the
exercise of reason enables the reasoner to achieve a kind of
reality that mere physical objects like rocks can never
achieve.
Other Types of Idealism(Not so important, you can leave it)
In addition to the main types of Idealism mentioned above, there
are other types of Idealism: Epistemological Idealism asserts that
minds are aware of, or perceive, only their own ideas
(representations or mental images), and not external objects, and
therefore we cannot directly know things in themselves, or things
as they really are. All we can ever have knowledge about is the
world of phenomenal human experience, and there is no reason to
suspect that reality actually mirrors our perceptions and thoughts.
This is very similar to the doctrine of Phenomenalism.Actual
Idealism is a form of Idealism developed by the Italian philosopher
Giovanni Gentile (1875 - 1944) that contrasted the Transcendental
Idealism of Kant and the Absolute Idealism of Hegel. His system saw
thought as all-embracing, and claimed that no-one could actually
leave their sphere of thinking, or exceed their own thought. His
ideas were key to helping the Fascist party consolidate power in
Italy, and gave Fascism much of its philosophical base.Buddhist
Idealism (also known as "consciousness-only" or "mind-only") is the
concept in Buddhist thought that all existence is nothing but
consciousness, and therefore there is nothing that lies outside of
the mind. It is a major tenet in the early Yogacara school of
Buddhism, which developed into the mainstream Mahayana
school.Panpsychism holds that that all parts of matter involve mind
or, alternatively, that the whole universe is an organism that
possesses a mind. Therefore, according to Panpsychism, all objects
of experience are also subjects (i.e. plants and minerals have
subjective experiences, albeit very different from the
consciousness of humans). Gottfried Leibniz subscribed to a view of
this kind of Idealism.Practical Idealism is a political philosophy
which holds it to be an ethical imperative to implement ideals of
virtue or good (it is is therefore unrelated to Idealism in its
other senses). Its earliest recorded use was by Mahatma Gandhi
(1869 - 1948), although it is now often used in foreign policy and
international relations, where it purports to be a pragmatic
compromise between political realism (which stresses the promotion
of a state's narrow and amoral self-interest), and political
idealism (which aims to use the state's influence and power to
promote higher liberal ideals like peace, justice and co-operation
between nations). Mian Waqas Haider
