We explain what idealism is, how it is classified and the representatives of this theory. Also, what are its characteristics and criticisms.
Kant is one of the most important philosophers of idealism as a philosophical position.
What is idealism?
Idealism is a set of Philosophical theories that support the ontological and gnoseological primacy of ideas. This means that ideas have autonomous existence, a higher degree of reality than material things and, in addition, they are a more perfect way to access knowledge.
The general belief that idealism is opposed to materialism arises from the contrast between idealism and the sensible world. While it is true that for materialism only the material and tangible world exists, It is not correct to say that idealism denies the material world.In fact, some forms of idealism, such as Kantian idealism, assume the existence of the material world, since they focus on the way we know the world and not on its existence.
idealism is a long-established philosophical school which encompasses, in its respective forms, the studies of philosophers as distant in time as Plato, Berkeley, Descartes, Leibniz and Immanuel Kant.
However, and beyond their differences, all forms of idealism agree that in order to reach the truth of things (and know them properly), we must pay attention to ideas and not only to material-sensible objects.
See also: Rationalism
Etymology and history of idealism
The word “idealism” Comes from latin ideawhich in turn comes from the Greek idea (ἰδεῖν), meaning “to see”. The first philosopher to use the term idealism To refer to a metaphysical position was Christian Wolff (1679-1754), a German thinker who wrote and worked during the 17th and 18th centuries. Wolff used the term to refer to the belief that reality is made of ideas.
In philosophical terms, it is called idealistic to any ontological doctrine (that speaks of being in general) that maintains that true reality is intangible or unexperienceable. According to this definition, Plato’s doctrine of two worlds can be understood as a precursor to idealism as it is known since modernity. According to Plato, physical or material reality is nothing more than a degraded and imperfect copy of the world of ideas, which does not change, is eternal and perfect.
Platonic idealism followed Neoplatonism, which was a philosophical school that developed between the 1st and 5th centuries. Both Platonism and Neoplatonism are forms of transcendental idealism, since they maintain that true reality is beyond the reach of the physical world, in a plane of existence that is only partially accessed and through the intellect or “nôus”. (as it is called in ancient Greek). Some scholars, however, suggest that the original Platonic idealism can be understood as a metaphysical dualism for its theory of two realities or, at any rate, a certain form of objective idealism.
Christianity, as a system of thought, is also a form of idealism. This is due to the Neoplatonic influence of some thinkers such as Plotinus (205-270) and Porphyry (232-304), who were received in the work of Augustine of Hippo (354-430). Some centuries later, the German thinker Hermann Lotze (1817-1881) wrote theological treatises based on the same ideas as Saint Augustine.
The Modern Age gave way to different forms of idealism whose theory and doctrine were developed mainly by German thinkers. Examples of this are the ideas of Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Bolzano, Fichte, Mach, Cassirer and Schelling. Other modern thinkers who presented forms of idealism were George Berkeley and Descartes, each with their own distinctive characteristics.
Characteristics of idealism
Generally speaking, idealism It is characterized by considering that ideas constitute the only or most perfect reality, depending on the type of idealism to which one adheres. At the same time, only the mind (and in some cases the spirit) has access to this one true reality.
From an epistemological point of view, the idea is granted that a world can exist independent of the ideal or put by the mind. The difference is that we can only know it through the intervention of the intellect. This is the reason why a thinker like Berkeley maintained that there is only what is perceived by the subject and, at the same time, the same reason why Kant abandoned all pretense of knowing what things are in themselves.
Another common feature of all forms of idealism is to consider that ideas, consciousness, intellect or spirit are always in a higher degree of perfection than the material world. This is generally considered a copy or degradation of the ideal world. In some cases, it is even just a projection or invention of the mind.
Types of idealism and their representatives
Platonic idealism
Universals, according to Plato, are objects that have a more abstract meaning.
Also called “Platonic realism”, Platonic idealism comes from the writings of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (427 BC-347 BC), disciple of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, who in his Republic and in other Platonic dialogues he raises the existence of universal: objects that exist in a more perfect and abstract sense than physical objects. The nature of these objects is metaphysical and eternal, they inhabit another plane of reality different from the material world, which is accessible only through philosophical intellection.
The human being does not have access to these universals through any of his senses, but he can conceive them, he can understand them. In that They differ from the individualsperfectly tangiblewhich are the objects around us and constitute a copy of the original universal form, that is, a copy of the ideas.
It may be useful to you: Plato’s contributions
Objective idealism
Objective idealism is a variant of idealism, much later than Plato, and states that ideas exist by themselves and that we can only have access to them through experience.
Your name comes from its proximity to scientific logicwhich was initially based on the same conception of reality as something that can be discovered through experimentation.
subjective idealism
Subjective idealism maintains that ideas exist within the subject’s mindso there is no autonomous world outside it. This school is further divided into two variants:
- radical subjective idealism. Those who hold this position assure that subjectivity is what builds the world, so there is no nature independent of those who perceive it, but rather it exists “for us.”
- Moderate subjective idealismThose who defend this position maintain that the perception of reality varies according to the content of the mind, so its existence varies according to the subject, despite having a certain existence of its own.
German idealism
German idealism It emerged as the German objective idealist philosophical school of the 18th and 19th centuries.Its main exponent was the Prussian thinker Immanuel Kant, although it is possible to trace some influences from Romanticism, the Enlightenment and the historical context of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars.
According to Kant, The external world exists, but it is not knowable to man in its entirety, which is why it is often said that Kant was both a materialist and an idealist. This is because for Kant we do not have access to what things are in themselves (what he calls “noumenon”). On the other hand, the objects of experience, which take their hypothetical origin from the noumenon, are called “phenomena” and are the result of a process of intellectual unification that is applied to the sensitive multiplicity perceived by the senses.
Other German thinkers representing idealism were Fichte (1762-1814), Schelling (1775-1854) and Hegel (1770-1831), who worked from the revolutionary work of Kant.
Transcendental idealism
For Kant, what is given and what is put in all knowledge must be contemplated.
Transcendental idealism, also called “transcendental subjectivism,” is the name that Immanuel Kant gave to his specific doctrine of thought. In his magnum opus, Critique of Pure Reason, Kant summarized the basis of his philosophy by saying that “Thoughts without content are empty; intuitions without concepts are blind”, that is, both concepts are interdependent for the knowledge of anything.
So, Objects are the result of the joint work of sensitivity (which brings “what is given” to it by the noumenon) and the reason (which applies different categories “posed” by the subject to unify the perceived sensitive multiplicity).
Continue with: Nihilism
References
- Allison, H. E. (1992). Kant’s transcendental idealism: an interpretation and defense (Vol. 40). Anthropos Editorial.
- Von Schelling, F.W.J. (2005). System of transcendental idealism (Vol. 14). Anthropos Editorial.
- Dunham, J., Grant, I.H., & Watson, S. (2014). Idealism: The history of a philosophy. Routledge.
- Ameriks, K. (Ed.). (2017). The Cambridge companion to German idealism. Cambridge University Press.