Philosophical Idealism: Most Important Types, Representatives and Characteristics

He philosophical idealism It is a theory or doctrine that is recognized for asserting the importance of ideas and, in some cases, even their independent existence of the things and objects of the world. It is also known as immaterialism, since it is the current that most opposes the foundations of materialism or realism.

This is evident in the idealist arguments that hold that the world outside of one's own mind is not knowable by itself; therefore, it is not truly"real". For idealistic philosophers, all external reality is nothing more than the product of an idea that comes from the mind of man, or even a supernatural being.

Plato, considered the father of philosophical idealism

Similarly, idealism is a somewhat rationalist current, since it is taken from deductive rationing to argue and theorize. This doctrine has different variants that depend on its representatives; nevertheless, in any of its branches there is a great focus on intellectual aspects.

This emphasis in the intellectual field is generated because, for the idealists, the objects are not more than what we perceive, the difficulties of the physical world are not of their interest.

History

Philosophical idealism is a term that began to be used in English, and then in other languages, around 1743."Idea"comes from the Greek word idein , which means"see".

Although the word was coined in that century, it is indisputable that idealism has been present in philosophy for more than 2000 years because Plato is considered the father of this theory.

In 480 a. C. Anaxagoras taught that all things were created through the mind. Years later, Plato would affirm that the maximum objective reality was only attainable through the ideal entities.

His theory of forms or ideas described how things existed independently of the rest of his circumstances; nevertheless, man's only means of understanding them was his mind and the ideas it generates. Centuries later, these beliefs would carry the title of objective idealism.

In conjunction with its Greek roots, many scholars also claim that idealism was present in ancient India, in doctrines such as Buddhism and in other schools of Eastern thought that made use of the Vedas texts.

However, idealism would be partially forgotten for a time and would not return to prominence until 1700 in the hands of philosophers such as Kant and Descartes, who would adopt and develop it in depth. It is also at this time when idealism is subdivided into its recognized branches.

The 4 types of philosophical idealism and their characteristics

According to the type of idealism that is spoken of, its fundamental characteristics can be quite different.

The basis that the idea comes before and is above the outside world prevails; nevertheless, the approaches to new theories change according to the philosopher and the branch of idealism that he represents.

Among the variants of idealism it is possible to find the following:

1- Objective idealism

- It is recognized by affirming that ideas exist by themselves, that we as men can only apprehend them and / or discover them from the"world of ideas".

- It assumes that the reality of experience combines and transcends the realities of experienced objects and the mind of the observer.

- Ideas exist outside those who experience reality, and who access these through reasoning.

2- Absolute idealism

- It is a subdivision of the aforementioned objective idealism.

- It was created by Hegel and expresses that, for man to really understand the object he observes, he must first find an identity of thought and being.

- For Hegel, the Being must be understood as an integral whole.

3- Transcendental idealism

- Founded by Immanuel Kant, he maintains that the mind translates the world in which we live, and transforms it into a space-time format that we can understand.

- Knowledge occurs only when there are two elements: an object that can be observed and a subject that observes it.

- In transcendental idealism all this knowledge of an external object varies according to the subject and has no existence without it.

4- Subjective idealism

- The external world is not autonomous, but rather depends on the subject.

- For these philosophers, everything that is presented in reality is nothing more than a set of ideas that do not exist outside of our own minds.

- Subjective idealism puts man above everything else.

Main managers

Among the most relevant idealist philosophers are:

Plato

He was the first to use the term"idea"to refer to the form of an immutable reality.

He studied ideas in depth and argued for a long time that ideas exist by themselves, although later he would change his argument and affirm the opposite: that ideas can not exist independently of sensible reality.

Rene Descartes

This philosopher divided the ideas into three categories: those that arise from the sensitive experience of learning or socialization, artificial or imaginative ideas, and natural or innate ideas that come from a superior force or intelligence.

In the same way, intuition was quite relevant in its idealism, since this is a direct perception of ideas that does not allow for error or doubt.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

He coined the term idealism for the first time, referring to Platonic philosophy. He solved the problem of innate ideas by arguing that these came from the true essence of objects, which he called Monad.

Immanuel Kant

Creator of transcendental idealism. He argued that all knowledge came from the combination of a subject and an object to experience.

In turn, man makes use of the impressions he has about this object and his ability to recognize it through this representation.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Finally, Hegel is also considered one of the most important idealist philosophers. Established absolute idealism, in which dualisms (for example, object-subject or mind-nature) are transcended since both are part of an absolute, which man must access to understand the world where he lives.

References

1. Neujahr, P. Kant's Idealism, Mercer University Press, 1995
2. Guyer, Paul (2015) Idealism. Recuperado de plato.stanford.edu/entries/idealism/
3. Beiser, F. (2002) German Idealism. The Struggle against Subjectivism. Harvard University Press, England
4. Pippin, R (1989) Hegel's Idealism. The Satisfactions of Self-Consciousness. Cambridge University Press
5. Hoernlé, Reinhold F. (1927) Idealism as a Philosophical Doctrine. George H. Doran Company