Since there has been some discussion of Plato and Leibniz,
who are both IMHO Idealists, but of different forms,
and since I have argued much against materialism, which
is inverse to Idealism, I thought the following
might be helpful:
Idealism
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Idealism (ethics).
This article is about the philosophical notion of idealism. For other uses, see
Idealism (disambiguation).
The 20th century British scientist Sir James Jeans wrote that "the Universe
begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine"
In philosophy, idealism is the group of philosophies which assert that reality,
or reality as we 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 a sociological sense,
idealism emphasizes how human ideas. especially beliefs and values, shape
society.
[1] As an ontological doctrine, idealism goes further, asserting that all
entities are composed of mind or spirit.[2] Idealism thus rejects physicalist
and dualist theories that fail to ascribe priority to the mind. The
corresponding idea in metaphysics is monism.
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 pantheistic arguments for an all-pervading
consciousness as the ground or true nature of reality.[3] In contrast, the
Yogacara school, which arose within Mahayana Buddhism in India in the 4th
century CE,[4] based its "mind-only" idealism to a greater extent on
phenomenological analyses of personal experience. This turn toward the
subjective anticipated
empiricists such as George Berkeley, who revived idealism in 18th-century
Europe by employing skeptical arguments against materialism.
Beginning with [Leibniz], Immanuel Kant, German idealists such as
,G. W. F. Hegel, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling,
and
Arthur Schopenhauer dominated 19th-century philosophy. This tradition, which
emphasized the mental or "ideal" character of all phenomena,
birthed idealistic and subjectivist schools ranging from British idealism to
phenomenalism to existentialism.
The historical influence of this branch of idealism remains central even to the
schools that rejected its metaphysical
assumptions, such as Marxism, pragmatism, and positivism.
[Roger Clough], [rclo...@verizon.net]
1/10/2013
"Forever is a long time, especially near the end." - Woody Allen
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