Thread: idealism

I've taken 3 philosophy classes but it's been a few years, and I don't remember all the terms used. If I remember correctly, idealism is the view that everything is in our minds and that the physical world doesn't exist, while materialism is the opposite extreme view, that everything including our minds is ultimately physical. Correct me if I'm wrong.

If that is the definition, the idea of idealism seems rediculous. The most obvious explanation for it seeming to us like a material world exists it that it really does. Using Occam's Razor, we should conclude that materialism (or maybe dualism) is most likely true. The idea that everything is in our minds has no basis that I can see.

The most obvious explanation for it seeming to us like a material world exists it that it really does.

The problem with this is what criteria are you using to differentiate immateriality from materiality, we know it cant be size, color, shape or even mass or even the feeling created when touching it because we know those things can be simulated, all the things we use as a criteria for materiality is present in a dream, unless you are arguing that our dreams take place in a physical plane, then there is not much argument there.

I might be missing something, but I don't see how what you said responds to what I said. I'm saying the most simple explanation that would require our natural view of the world to be altered the least, is that the material world really exists. Unless I forget what the concept is, I'm applying Occam's Razor. I'm not saying that I can tell for sure that the world is real because it seems real, just that that explanation is the most obvious, requires us to give up the least number of beliefs we already have.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

I might be missing something, but I don't see how what you said responds to what I said. I'm saying the most simple explanation that would require our natural view of the world to be altered the least, is that the material world really exists. Unless I forget what the concept is, I'm applying Occam's Razor. I'm not saying that I can tell for sure that the world is real because it seems real, just that that explanation is the most obvious, requires us to give up the least number of beliefs we already have.

Ok, I get you now. Using Occam's razor, the most simple explanation would be that because it seems like it is, therefore it is. Anyway, the wording in your sentence was a little misleading. Of course, when it comes to "reality", even if this world is immaterial, it can still be as real as if it was material. This also depends on what criteria you use to deem something "real".

Though I must admit that the mind being so powerful where in cases of trances, the sensation of pain can go away, a hand being put in a fire wont burn, these things and there are others that I did not mention to me point to this whole thing being in our mind, or a more correct way to put it is that this whole thing is our mind, not "in" our mind. A playground for our imagination.