Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Idealism

The term idealism is often used to refer to a point of view that evaluates matters from the perspective of an ideal way of thinking. It is sometimes defined as the act or practice of envisioning things in an ideal form, as in pursuing one's ideals. In that sense, idealism is a widespread, if not global, phenomenon, found in ancient Hindu and Buddhist thinking as well as classic Greek thought. The term also applies to a series of Western philosophical doctrines. From the latter perspective, idealism is sometimes described as the doctrine that philosophical ideas are the only reality, but it is probable that no one ever held precisely this view. Idealism is also widely but mistakenly contrasted with realism, as if idealists rejected claims to know the real, which is untrue. Idealism emerges in philosophy as early as Platonism, which is often referred to as Platonic idealism. In modern times, it is strongly opposed by Marxism and Anglo-American analytic philosophy. The former often regards idealism as going from ideas to the world and not conversely. The latter often regards idealism as denying the existence of the external world.

To make sense of idealism, it is important to clear away widespread, tenacious misconceptions. Idealism, although often mentioned, is much reviled, but little studied, and not well understood. Although at different times in the history of Western philosophy, idealism was thought to be important, it is currently widely considered to be out of date, indefensible, difficult to state clearly, and something that need not be mentioned in discussing even the most important idealist thinkers.

Philosophical Heritage

In philosophical contexts, idealism is used to refer to an implausibly broad variety of disparate positions associated with numerous important figures widely scattered throughout the Western philosophical tradition. There is no way to draw up a complete list without identifying a standard of what counts as idealism. An incomplete list, which suffices to indicate how many important figures have been associated with idealism and idealist movements, might include the following: Plato, René Descartes, G. W. Leibniz, the Cambridge Platonists (Ralph Cudworth, John Smith, Benjamin Whichcote, Nathaniel Culverwell, Henry More, and others), George Berkeley, the German idealists (Immanuel Kant, J. G. Fichte, F. W. J. Schelling, G. W. F. Hegel, perhaps J. C. F. Hölderlin, perhaps even Karl Marx), the British idealists (J. H. Stirling, S. T. Coleridge, J. F. Ferrier, T. H. Green, Edward Caird, F. H. Bradley, J. M. E. McTaggart, Bernard Bosanquet, etc.), the Italian Hegelians (Giovanni Gentile, Benedetto Croce, etc.), R. G. Collingwood, Edmund Husserl, on some interpretations Martin Heidegger, even Ludwig Wittgenstein, Rudolf Carnap, and perhaps Donald Davidson, who is sometimes linked to linguistic idealism. Yet at present, when idealism is out of fashion, Nicholas Rescher is the only widely known philosopher associated with idealism.

The philosophical term idealism seems to have been invented by Leibniz. In responding to Pierre Bayle, Leibniz (1875–1890) objects to “those who, like Epicurus and Hobbes, believe that the soul is material” and adds that in his own position “whatever of good there is in the hypotheses of Epicurus and Plato, of the great materialists and the great idealists, is combined here” (pp. 559–560). He suggests, as Fichte later appears to suggest, a simultaneous commitment to idealism and materialism (or realism). This suggestion implies that idealism and realism are compatible, but most observers regard materialism (or realism) as incompatible; hence, they believe that a simultaneous commitment to both would be self-contradictory.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution