IDEALISM

in philosophy, the theory or doctrine emphasizing the primacy of the spirit or consciousness in viewing the world. Idealists argue that abstract relations between entities are more real than objects apprehended through the senses, existence being principally in the realm of ideas; this last notion is called specifically metaphysical idealism. There is an epistemological type of idealism, which claims that the mind, in seeking knowledge, can apprehend only what is spiritual, or claims that at any rate the reality of objects resides in their perceptibility. Although there are many types of idealism, six tenets are shared by all of them: the existence of universals (qualities common to every member of a category); a transcendence of the here and now; the idea that relations between entities may transform those entities; a dialectical approach, building up systems that incorporate elements from sometimes contradictory constituents (most idealists hold that even bad can be transcended to produce good); and, finally, that the mind is considered superior to matter, particularly if expressed as spirit. Idealists have tried to define ultimate reality; to delimit the basic data of human knowledge (which they have tended to see as a spirit force embracing the whole of world history); and to construct a philosophy of history that accounts for the fact of change and any purpose that may inhere in change. Among individual idealist contentions are: that the essence of an object is its being perceived (formulated by the 18th-century British Bishop George Berkeley; Berkeley's brand is called subjective idealism); that the relationship of a subject and object is part of the fact about the subject's and object's existence; a tendency toward a mystical apprehension of the absolute (as in the case of Plato's embracing the idea of the good); and the ontological proof of God's existence set out by St. Anselm in the 11th century, arguing that because God is conceived of as perfect he must exist, since if he did not exist he would not be perfect. Various strands of idealism exist; one such is the formalistic or transcendental idealism proposed in the late 18th century by Immanuel Kant (who himself actually preferred the term critical idealism). Kant argued that the human mind could make sense of its experience only on the basis of certain highly specific general conceptual features, such as the ability to locate and relocate objects in space and time. Still, from the fact that the human mind could make sense of its experience only if reality exhibited such features, it did not follow that reality was actually like that. Indeed, Kant believed that one renders reality intelligible by imposing on sensory experience those general conceptual features that are the essential preconditions of an intelligible reality, and that reality itself, although conceivable, was not directly receivable. In contrast to Berkeley's subjective idealism was objective idealism, formulated by the three German successors of Kant. These were F.W.J. Schelling (aesthetic idealism), J.G. Fichte (moral idealism), and G.W.F. Hegel (dialectical idealism). Differences between subjective and objective idealism were not always clear-cut, however. For instance, Fichte's idealism was later called subjective in contrast to Schelling's objective variety, while Hegel's became known as absolute idealism. Hegel in particular rejected Kant's version of idealism. He argued that the concept of the unknowable things in themselves was itself unintelligible. The central doctrine of absolute idealism is that reality can be known, and can be known to be ultimately spiritual in nature, but that spirit or mind can only realize itself in relation to the external world. Mind fulfills itself in its encounters with physical reality. This process of realization seems to consist in a historical progression whereby one inadequate but intellectually dominant concept eventually generates inconsistencies that lead to its being replaced by an opposing concept. This concept also displays inconsistency, however. Hence the solution is to combine these two concepts in a third, less inadequate concept. However, this concept in turn, although an improvement on previous concepts, itself displays inadequacies that generate a new thesis and antithesis (as Hegel called this pattern of concept progression). The process known as the dialectic gradually resulted in the concepts' reaching the one fully adequate concept, the absolute idea, which would demonstrate that reality could only be understood as a totality that was spiritual in nature. In the 19th and 20th centuries, idealism underwent numerous revivals and reinterpretations. Similar doctrines have played central roles in Indian, Chinese, and Islamic metaphysics and epistemology.