Idealism

Idealism (derived from Greek ἰδέα " idea ", " archetype " ) refers to philosophy different currents and individual items " to emphasize that reality is determined in a radical way by knowledge and thinking " or that ideas or ideational foundations of reality, knowledge and morality make. In a narrower sense is referred to as a representative of idealism, who assumes that the physical world exists only as an object for consciousness or awareness is spiritual or procure to themselves.

In ethical idealism, it is assumed that we can establish and regulate our actions by rational, reliable and binding considerations and should. In everyday parlance it can " idealism " eg an altruistic, selfless attitude, respectively.

Conceptual history

The term " idealism " occurs in German as a foreign name on the philosophical positions in the 18th century. Opposing concepts are especially " materialism ", " realism" and " naturalism ".

Leibniz used " idealist" for positions that he connects especially with Plato and opposes positions he va connects with Epicurus, which he calls the other hand, " materialist ".

Wolff used " idealism " as " veto materialistic conceptions ". The " idealist" holds, for example, the reality of the soul as a non- substantive object. On the other hand, denies the " idealist" about use of Wolff, Leibniz, and Moses Mendelssohn, that an objective thing and the physical world exists. So Mendelssohn used " idealism " as antonym of " dualism " and characterized the former:

" The followers of idealism holds all phenomena of our senses for commercial work of the human mind, and does not think outside of it a tangible prototype is to be found, they come as textures. "

History effect particularly influential is the term used by Immanuel Kant

Epistemology and metaphysics

To important currents, which are called " idealism ", include the following items:

• Theories, which are sometimes referred to as an objective idealism and reality all traced back to ideas that exist in themselves and to which everything participates rest, as developed in the theory of Ideas of Plato and in its reception. Historically, this position is first moored in Plato. In his dialogue Politeia he developed, including with the allegory of the cave, and following on from the mathematics, a theory of ideas, in which he imagines ideas as original models and plans of things and actions. Who realizes these ideas, which could also govern the community. Regarding in particular medieval debates about the so-called problem of universals is the adoption of an independent reality referred to (not only as a reserve in our mind, in our language, or as properties of objects ) of ideas as " realism" (with respect to independently existent ideas or universals ).

• A monistic variant developed Baruch de Spinoza.

• The rationalist ontology (see monadology ) by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz can also be understood as an objective- idealistic position. Leibniz represents a spiritual monism, which precludes inter alia, a mechanistic model of nature, as it had become some popular in the reception of Newton. His spiritual monads have no real interaction ratio, but they are matched in a pre-established harmony.

• The theistic idealism, as it has represented George Berkeley, is also referred to as empirical or as Subjective Idealism. According to him, the reality is based on our imagination or to the God.

• Critical idealism or transcendental idealism was developed by Immanuel Kant. According to Kant, the recognition has never dealt directly with objects as they are in themselves, but with their appearances in consciousness. Kant assumes, however, that the cause of these phenomena " things in themselves " are, although we can never have one of these immediate knowledge. As an antonym of the term ( epistemological ) can be used " realism" (with respect to an extra - mental objects ), unless it is meant that our concepts and beliefs directed to objects outside the mind, the existence and nature of our consciousness and our experience is independent. Kant goes on the other hand believe that in the consciousness even before all the individual experience ( "a priori" ) are given conditions for recognition, including about spatio-temporal structures, which he calls " forms of sensible intuition " or so-called categories such as the interrelating of causes to effects. Such transcendental forms of knowledge organize our knowledge; without knowledge is therefore not possible.

• The absolute idealism, as the representatives of German idealism have represented him who sees mentally determines the totality of beings as much. Probably already in Tubingen was the oldest system program of German idealism by Friedrich Hölderlin, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. In absolute idealism of the 19th century, attempts were made to overcome the subject- object split of the critical idealism of German philosophy. This was faced by Schelling as Objective idealism the recognition of a " subjective idealism ". Here are understood as both " subjectivist " as Berkeley and Kant. Hegel's system is trying, in its dialectic between this dualism in and of itself and, for us aside '. The spiritual world of ideas and the material objective world of facts and objects into a single unit by the historical concept of reason. Idealism thus lifts itself into reality on.

• The British idealism was the dominant philosophical doctrine in the United Kingdom in the Victorian era, which partly Positions of the acquired German Idealism and was continuing and was also influential for parts of the so-called analytic philosophy.

" Idealism " in the sense of idealistic metaphysics is facing fundamental objections of the critique of metaphysics. Some elaborations of existentialist and phenomenological positions can be understood as extensions of classical idealist positions. The ontological status of ideas is V.A. in analytical ontology still controversially debated. In the recent philosophical semantics, epistemology and metaphilosophy classical realism debate continues differentiated. Debate is not just about which corresponding reference objects are acceptable, but eg also conditions the Aussagbarkeit (English assertibility ), validity or truth of statements which appear referring to it or take. A subspecialty systematic debates, questions arose whose classical example in debates about " idealistic " positions, are discussions of externalism and internalism.