| Osterley view -almost a painting |
And Big Idea 28 is Idealism in philosophy (it's different is politics)
Idealism is the category of
philosophical systems that claim reality is dependent upon the
mind rather than independent of the mind. Extreme versions of
Idealism deny that any 'world' exists outside of our minds.
Narrower versions of Idealism claim that our understanding of
reality reflects the workings of our mind first and foremost -
that the properties of objects have no standing independent of
the minds perceiving them.
It's closely linked with Monism (that it's reducible to single unity) i.e. the metaphysical and
theological view that
all is one, that all reality (including God) is subsumed under the
most fundamental category of being or existence (big theme in Eastern belief systems listen here)
Key figures:
George Berkley who was a talented
metaphysician famous for defending idealism, that is, the view that
reality consists exclusively of minds and their ideas. Berkeley's
system, while it strikes many as counter-intuitive, is strong and
flexible enough to counter most objections.
Dialectic Idealism -The German
philosopher, G W F Hegel (1770-1831) was the king of dialectical
idealism.
The Hegelian dialectic is a three stage
model of development that can be applied to various disciplines in
our understanding of the world and reality. The first stage is the
thesis, this is followed by reaction to it, the counter argument, or
opposite (the antithesis). From this tension between the two arises a
third possibility, the synthesis, which is a new and (perhaps) better option than either the thesis or antithesis, being the
integration of the two previous. The synthesis is also
many times greater than simply the sum of the thesis and antithesis.
