Types of philosophy

Types of Idealism in Philosophy

1. Subjective Idealism

Who: Associated with George Berkeley.

What: Reality only exists in the mind of the perceiver; objects are only real when perceived.

Example: A tree in a park only exists when someone is looking at it. If no one is around, it doesn’t exist for that person.

2. Objective Idealism

Who: Associated with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Plato.

What: Reality exists independently of individual minds but is fundamentally mental or spiritual, rooted in a universal mind.

Example: The laws of physics (like gravity) are real and consistent, as they exist within a universal mind that shapes all reality, even if no one observes them directly.

3. Transcendental Idealism

Who: Associated with Immanuel Kant.

What: We can only know things as they appear to us (phenomena) but not as they are in themselves (noumena).

Example: We see a cup as round and blue because that’s how our mind interprets it, but we can never know the "true" nature of the cup outside of our perception.

4. Phenomenal Idealism

Who: Also associated with Immanuel Kant.

What: Reality is experienced through our perceptions and mental framework, so we can only understand things as they appear, not as they inherently are.

Example: When you see a mountain, you only experience it as it appears to you; you can't directly know the mountain's independent reality, only how it’s filtered through your perception.

5. Absolute Idealism

Who: Further developed by Hegel and Friedrich Schelling.

What: Reality is an interconnected whole, where all individual experiences and objects are part of one universal mind or absolute reality.

Example: An individual’s thoughts, emotions, and actions are just parts of a larger reality (the Absolute) that includes everything in the universe.

6. Epistemological Idealism

Who: Commonly discussed in general idealist philosophy.

What: Claims that all we know about the external world is based on our ideas or perceptions, not on direct access to the physical world.

Example: When you look at a chair, what you know is your mental image of the chair, not the chair itself.

7. Pluralistic Idealism

Who: Associated with Leibniz.

What: Reality consists of many individual minds or spiritual entities, each contributing to the whole experience.

Example: Each person experiences reality in their unique way, but all experiences collectively form the world.