14 CHARACTERISTICS of philosophical IDEALISM

In today's lesson we are going to explain the main characteristics of philosophical idealism, a current that affirms that ideas are more important than the rest of things, that reality is a construct of the mind and that things exist if there is a mind that can think them.

Likewise, idealism is directly opposed to materialism and is characterized by being one of the longest-lived philosophical currents in history, which began with Plato and that continues to this day. Giving rise to birth of endless idealisms. If you want to know more about idealism and its characteristics, keep reading because we explain it to you in a PROFESSOR.

The term idealism is made up of two words that have their origin in Greek: ideal What does idea mean? ism which means doctrine or school, that is, idealism is the doctrine of ideas.

Likewise, his birth must be located in Ancient Greece and in the person of Plato(427-347 a. C.). Philosopher who, with his theory of ideas, laid the first stone of a trend that throughout history has been branching out and that has had such important representatives, such as

: Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), Immanuel Kant (1729-1804) or Friedrich Hegel (1770-1931).

In this way, in philosophy, idealism is a current that affirms that ideas are more important that the rest of the things, that the reality is a construct of the mind and that the things exist if there is a mind that can think them. This current collides directly with others such as the realism, materialism and physicalism.

As we have seen throughout this lesson, many forms of idealism have developed, so establishing universal characteristics is complex. However, broadly speaking, characteristics of idealism are:

1. The primacy of the idea about the rest of the things.
2. The idea is the principle of being and of knowledge.
3. Matter is secondary and it is contingent on the idea. Matter cannot exist outside of consciousness.
4. Ideas exist by themselves and that are discovered through own experience.
5. Depending on the current, lideas inhabit an independent world or not: According to Platonic / objective idealism they inhabit an intelligible world and according to subjective idealism they do not.
6. The objects/things cannot exist without there being a mind that, previously, think them and be aware of it. That is, it requires the intellect to develop an idea of ​​things.
7. The way to know reality, our world and life (the objects themselves) is through the intellect and experience.
8. Existence is the result of the exchange of ideas = everything can be thought and, therefore, reality can be known through concepts.
9. The idea is the basis of all knowledgeto and the one that leads us to understand reality.
10. Ideas are eternals, universal, necessary and immutable, unlike beings, which are limited and finite.
11. Reason is not identified with the finite or material, but reaches the infinite.
12. Knowledge is born from the intervention of two variables or elements: the subject (the position / noumenon) and the object (the given / phenomenon). That is, without the subject, the object does not exist.
13. There is nothing beyond the reality we know.
14. The importance of ideas does not imply being idealistic.

Within idealism we find the following currents:

Platonic and objective idealism

Platonic idealism is the first of idealisms and establishes the primacy of ideas above all else, as well as the existence of two worlds (ontological dualism):

• The sensible world: It is the world of the human being, which is characterized by being the world of appearances, of the changing and of the partial perception of things.
• The world of the intelligible: It is a world outside of being and supersensible, the world of universal ideas and truth. A world that is sensed through reason and not through the senses. Therefore, to know the reality in which we live it is necessary to doubt the perception of our senses because they deceive us.

In time, Platonic idealism led to the objective idealism, which establishes that ideas exist by themselves and that they are discovered through one's own experience. Its representatives include: Plato, Leibniz, Hegel, Bolzano or Dilthey.

Subjective idealism

This idealism asserts that ideas do not reside in a supersensible world, external and independent, but they are in our own mind and that at all times depend on the subjectivity of the individual who perceives them. Within this current, the following stand out: Descartes, Berkeley, Kant and Fichte.

German idealism

As the name suggests, the german idealism It was developed in Germany, between the 18th-19th centuries, and from the hand of Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel. They stand out:

1. Kant's Transcendental Idealism: Kant, establishes that for the knowledge two variables or elements have to intervene: the subject (the put / noumenon) and the object (the given / phenomenon). In this process, the subject is the one who sets the conditions for the development of knowledge and the object is the material principle of knowledge.
2. The absolute idealism of Hegel: For Hegel the idea is defined as the basis of all knowledge and it is what leads us to understand reality (something intangible but rational). Thus, reality is the development of an idea and the idea is the development itself. Both reality and idea are needed and one cannot exist without the other.