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Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Idealism

Introduction
Idealism is the the belief the world comes from the mind.  We only know we are conscious.  What we perceive may not be real.  Idealism has a long history and many philosophers.  There are many different types of idealism.  It even goes beyond philosophy.  It's a bit short sided.  I will explain that later.
History
There is absolute idealism in the Rig Veda.  Everything is a part of Purusha.  Purusha is also beyond thingness.  There was a Greek philosopher named Anaxagoras that believed the universe started off as one substance.  The philosophers of Vedanta believe everything is a part of Parabrahman.  Plato was an idealist. He believed in Forms.  Forms are the essence of all things.  Idealism is popular in popular in Yogacara. Yogacara is a school of Mahayana Buddhism; consciousness is everything.  Plotinus was somewhat of an idealist. He believed time didn't exist outside the oversoul.  Wang Yangming was a Neo-Confucian philosopher.  He believed our mind shapes the objects we perceive.  Rene Descartes believed the world was a projection of our consciousness.  Nicolas Malebranche believed we can only know what's in our mind. Bishop George Berkeley believed only perception is real.  Immanuel Kant believed the mind generates its own perception. Johann Gottlieb Fichte believed consciousness created the universe. Friedrich Schelling believed art connected the subject and object; intuition is better than reason.  There are several idealistic churches.  The New Thought Movement is also idealistic.    

Different Types of Idealism

Absolute Idealism: Divine Mind is the cause of all things.  Our minds are simply small forms of that.  Reason helps us understand the world.  Mind and matter are related.  Consciousness is always changing, which causes new things to come into being.

Actual Idealism: Perception creates reality.  Only thoughts are real.

Buddhist Idealism: Everything is consciousness.  Nothing exist outside of that.

Epistemological Idealism: We only know what's in our mind.  Reality may not correspond to our perception of it.

Objective Idealism: Everything is a part of the Absolute.  Nothing exist outside of it.  This form of Idealism seems like religion.

Panpsychism: All matter has Mind.  Mind and matter are the same.  The All is mind the universe is mental.

Practical Idealism: Governments should promote virtue.

Subjective Idealism: Our mind is the only reality.  We can only know our perception of things.  Everything is in the Divine Mind.

Transcendental Idealism: We can only know our perception of things.  We can't know things as they really are.

Shortcomings of Idealism
If we believe that the world comes from our mind, we may become delusional.  If the world is simply a product of our mind then we should be able to fly just be thinking it.  The world existed long before we did, so it's foolish to believe we created.

Perception shapes the way we experience the world.  Without perception we would be like corpses.  Our perception is limited, but it has merit.  Every organism perceives the world somehow.  I don't know of any organism that can perceive everything in existence.

Actual Idealism has been destroyed by science.  There many things we can't perceive.  With aid of scientific instruments we can perceive things that are unperceivable to our senses alone.  Examples of this is the electromagnetic spectrum, germs, atoms, most of the universe, etc.  Without spectrometer, spectrum analyzer, oscilloscopes, microscopes, and telescopes we wouldn't be to perceive none of this!!!!!  Except for some special people such as the Dogon, psychics, people with clairvoyance, clairaudience, and/or clairsentience, etc.  The funny thing is we all have these abilities.  We just have to tap into them.      

Idealism is a good ideology, but it's incomplete.

Conclusion
Idealism is sweet!!!!!!  We influence the world and world influence us.  Mind and matter are inseparable. What the point of being aware if there is nothing to perceive?  What the point of matter if there is no one to enjoy it?  I'm an idealist and a realist.  I only know what I perceive, but the world is independant of my perception of it.

References
http://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_idealism.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_idealism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogachara
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Yangming
https://www.papermasters.com/actual-idealism.html                

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