Idealism is one of the main strands of philosophical thought, whose history dates back to the philosophers of Ancient Greece. In fact, as we will see in the examples, the belief that ideas, the spiritual world, can be independent of the material world, predates the emergence of philosophy..
With various variants, idealism proposes that ideas are independent of matter, that consciousness and spirit are autonomous entities of the material world, and that it is impossible to know the world without our consciousness, and in the extreme case, that nothing was of our consciousness or spirit exists.
From a historical point of view, idealists claim that the role of ideas has been more determining than material conditions. However, not all idealism rejects the existence of the material world, and there are thinkers and perspectives that take elements from both idealism and materialism..
In Western philosophy, idealism begins with Plato (4th century BC) and his followers; Neoplatonists and various medieval philosophers have been encompassed in the so-called classical idealism.
But it is from René Descartes that this aspect is renewed, developing until culminating in the German philosophy of the 18th and 19th centuries, with representatives such as Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Schelling and G.W. Hegel.
Since its emergence, idealism has remained closely linked to the notion of the soul, of a supreme divinity, and of a knowledge that can only be accessed through consciousness and thought..
Materialistic thought does not rule out the existence and importance of ideas, where idealism differs is in pointing out that ideas are independent of the material world. In some cases it is argued that the material world derives from ideas.
In idealism, access to reality is, in the first place, through the intellect, although some currents do not rule out the importance of sensible experience, knowledge through the senses..
Some currents of idealism affirm that matter cannot exist outside of consciousness; in extreme case, nothing exists outside of consciousness, and in this case we speak of solipsism.
From a sociological point of view, idealism emphasizes the role that ideas and beliefs have played in the development of societies..
Objective idealism considers that ideas exist independently of us or of matter. Human beings can access them through experience and knowledge. Plato, Gottfried Leibniz, Hegel, Wilhelm Dilthey and Gottlob Frege, among others, are classified as objective idealists..
Subjective idealism, unlike objective, asserts that ideas only exist in the mind or spirit of individuals. Subjective idealists are considered Descartes, George Berkeley, Kant, Fichte and Ernst Cassirer, among others.
This form of idealism has two variants: the one that affirms that there is nothing outside the mind, the external world is made by us; and the one that affirms that our senses and knowledge give us biased information from the outside world, we see what we want or can see.
It is the one that is present in the work of the Greek philosopher Plato and that exerted a great influence in antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages. It is also called Platonic realism, which is confusing.
This philosopher proposes the existence of a reality beyond the reality we see, which would become the reflection or shadow of this "real" world, which can only be accessed through thought.
In that place would be found the universals, the true objects and ideas from which the shadows of this world emerge, which we believe to be real..
It is a postulate of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), raised in his book Critique of Pure Reason, in which he affirms that all knowledge has two parts: the external world, subject of knowledge; and the subject as such, the subject who knows.
He also affirmed that what we know has no existence of its own and depends on our thoughts (the phenomenon); beyond would be the object out of our reach, the "noumenon", the object itself.
They are the different currents of idealism that flourish in German culture from the work of Kant, and whose main representatives are, in addition to Kant, Fichte, Schelling or Hegel.
These systems developed in the face of materialistic theories such as Marxism and the growing dominance of experimental science. But already in the twentieth century differentiating these two currents became more complicated, since they tend to mix in philosophies such as Marxism and existentialism..
It is a current of thought attributed to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831). Hegel affirmed that for the subject to access knowledge of the world, there must be an absolute identity between thought and being.
For this identity to occur, the subject needs thinking tools that allow him to develop consciousness, in order to achieve true knowledge of the world.
He was a disciple of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle; founded the Academy of Athens and almost all his work is collected in the form of dialogues.
He affirmed that the sensible world, what we see, is only a shadow or reflection of the "real" world, the "topos uranus" ("place beyond the heavens"), where universal ideas inhabit and where the human soul comes from..
Platonism has been enormously influential for over 2,000 years, inside and outside of philosophy, in areas ranging from ethics and politics, to Christian education and theology..
This French thinker is considered the father of modern philosophy, rationalism and one of the forerunners of the scientific revolution. He advocated the separation of the body and the soul and his best known philosophical phrase is "I think, therefore I am".
This Irish philosopher and bishop is the main representative of subjective idealism, which denies the reality of the outside world, or our ability to correctly perceive it through our senses..
However, Berkeley did not deny the value of science, and his works contributed to the development of modern optics and mathematics..
German philosopher who was part of the Enlightenment movement (which favored education and rationalism as a form of knowledge), and author of three fundamental works: the Critique of Practical Reason, the Criticism of the trial and the Critique of Pure Reason.
In this last work, he proposed the existence of knowledge prior to experience, and the ability to think about objects beyond sensory experience as part of a transcendental idealism..
He is considered the last and most important modern philosopher and the greatest representative of German idealism. His most important works are the Phenomenology of the spirit, the Science of logic and the Encyclopedia of philosophical sciences.
He promoted the use of dialectics (a dynamic relationship of reason with facts), and advocated a kind of logic and direction in history from ancient Greece to the rise of the Prussian state..
His thought exerted, and still exerts, a powerful influence on Western philosophy, and is present in authors as dissimilar as Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Max Stirner, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse and, in more recent times, Slavoj Žižek.
The idea of gods and divine beings who have created humans in their image and likeness is perhaps the oldest manifestation of idealism, in contrast to the materialistic conception, which since the ancient Greeks affirmed that the gods were made in the image of the humans.
The statement that the body and the soul are separate, and that the soul transcends the body, is also a very ancient idealistic manifestation, present in all those beliefs that speak of immortality or reincarnation..
That the right to rule over others is a gift given by the gods to a particular person or family, is a very old and widespread idea to justify the existence of monarchies and royal families.
The belief that certain groups of stars and planets govern our destiny is also one of the oldest idealistic manifestations..
The current notion of romantic love emerged in the 12th century, and there are historians who link it to the court society of the time. Music and literature played a fundamental role in the development and popularization of this feeling..
The idea that all humans are equal and have the same rights is long-standing, present in various social movements that shook Europe since the Middle Ages, but it takes shape and triumphs thanks to the thought of the Enlightenment in France, the success of the American Revolution (1783) and the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789).
"The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" is the most transcendent document of this latest revolution, whose principles have been extended thanks to the Charter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, approved at the UN between 1945 and 1948.
The global interconnection and the rise of social networks have brought back theories and beliefs that were practically discarded for five centuries, such as the belief in a flat Earth or the theories that a small group of people control everything that happens in the world. world.
The belief in a flat Earth, which was also the center of the universe, was maintained for almost 1,500 years, so it is not surprising that despite all the evidence to the contrary, it has once again had followers..
It is the certainty that history and the world are moving in a certain direction, towards the world revolution or the apocalypse. This idealistic manifestation is present in religious systems and in political theories such as Marxism.
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