IDEALISM: Defined and Explained

What is Idealism? This philosophy video provides a clear definition of Idealism and explains what does and doesn't count as Idealism under that definition. This task is important because there is confusion concerning whether specific metaphysical views held by past and contemporary philosophers qualify, especially the contentious case of Immanuel Kant who held a position he termed 'Transcendental Idealism'.

This is an introductory video into Idealism that clears the way for detailed and specific discussions of the view from a historical and contemporary perspective in other videos.

#Idealism #Definition #Explained

----------Video Contents----------

0:00 - Introduction
0:08 - The Definition
0:46 - A Controversy
1:36 - Ontological Idealism
2:04 - Epistemological Idealism
2:51 - The Real Idealism
3:50 - Ending

----------Channel Details----------

This channel features videos about big ideas in philosophy, explained as simply as I can. The focus is on late 19th and early 20th century thought, with a particular emphasis on the British Idealists (e.g. F. H. Bradley, J. M. E. McTaggart) and early analytic philosophers (Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Frank Ramsey). Welcome to the channel!

----------My Details----------

I am a PhD student and Gates Scholar at Cambridge near the end of a thesis on Frege's views on Truth. I have lectured at Cambridge on Frank Ramsey and Bertrand Russell, regularly taught undergraduate logic classes, and have also supervised students in metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophical logic, epistemology, and early analytic philosophy. But I have a keen interest in the British Idealists that I hope to pursue by making videos about what I'm reading, so much of the content of this channel will be an outlet for that interest.

----------References----------
Guyer, Paul and Rolf-Peter Horstmann, "Idealism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

[RedDove]

It is weirdly difficult to get a straight forward defintion of Idealism. So this is great!

[fas]

Very underrated channel. As someone from a different but similar background (computer science), these videos help me bridge the gaps in my knowledge. Thanks a lot.

[lovaloo]

I have met several people who naturally gravitate to this way of thinking. It's been a perplexing experience for me, in childhood I was more skeptical, and later became a non skeptical realist. Idealists strike me as detached and specious in their reasoning. These videos help me to understand people who think differently, and to ask the questions they ask, thank you.

[saulbee]

Another quality video, came here from Frege to subscribe and impressed. I like the distinction between ontological and epistemic idealism and certainly helps to clarify why I never really viewed Kant as an idealist.

[MonisticIdealism]

It's refreshing to see a straightforward and accurate explanation of idealism without falsely equating it with solipsism. I'm definitely looking forward to watching your next video on how idealism competes against its rivals.

[caitlinwallis]

Great explanation! Your voice is so nice to listen to

[moesypittounikos]

An amazing intro to the different strands of idealism is Bryan Magee's book on Schopenhauer. The chapters on idealism and the great tradition are seriously amazing. Magee was also a novelist and he could communicate like a master. And the second best is probably Schopenhauer's short essay on idealism.

[samrowbotham]

Very good, however, the man whose been championing Idealism strongly for the past 10 years is Bernardo Kastrup and he holds to Analytical Idealism as I am in touch with him maybe, I can facilitate a video interview/discussion between you both. As a Clinical Hypnotherapist I am more aware than most that words are spells:


1: "Analytic Idealism is a theory of the nature of reality that maintains that the
universe is experiential in essence. That does not mean that reality is in your or
our individual minds alone, but instead in a spatially unbound, transpersonal
field of subjectivity of which we are segments." Kastrup


1: Phenomenalistic idealism claims that the physical world is logically created. by
the organization of (i.e. the regularities in and lawlike constraints on) hu- man
sense-experience. As such, it contrasts with, and falls between, two. other
ontological positions.
2: Phenomenal idealism is the metaphysics which deduces that, as we begin by
perceiving nothing but mental phenomena of sense, so all we know at last from
these data is also phenomena of sense, actual or possible. So far it is in general
agreement not only with Hume, but also with Kant in his first two positions

[aldensmith]

Great video Nathan. You explain complex ideas in a concise and understandable way. Despite the high quality of comment you are attracting (notwithstanding some of the silly interpersonal warfare comments that are not relevant to your video) and the knowledge that I am unable to comment at such a rarefied and specialist level, I think that your videos cleverly target both the more informed and the beginners such as myself - and for that I am grateful - Thanks, and looking forward to more of the same, including the educated and informed debate that it generates.

[TheBrunarr]

Very good video quality. I understand this is an introductory video, but I think it's important not to conflate transcendental idealism wholesale with epistemological idealism (not saying you meant to do that, but it can come across as that in the video). For anyone in the comments who may not know, "transcendental" refers to transcendental philosophy, which examines the necessary conditions for the possibility of empirical cognition, and Kant is a transcendental _idealist_ because he locates these necessary conditions in the nature/structure of the mind and mental activity. So this is quite different from epistemological idealism, even if it happens to coincide with Kant's views (which I think is questionable in itself because there are many different ways of viewing Kant, but I digress).

[RealProdisty]

everything is a belief or interpretation

[athenassigil]

I Kant get my head around this...ha! Anyways, keep on your quest to enlighten the You Tube universe, your explanations are clear and concise....and really quite excellent. Cheers!

[MyContext]

Thank You! I have been bombarded by an individual claiming idealism which before your video was absolute gibberish to me. I can get behind the epistemological idealism, but that as far as I can go.

[_DarkEmperor]

Two questions.
Are postmodernists epistemological idealists?
How materialism and realism are related, are those two the same thing, or those two concepts are just overlapping?

[Opposite]

It seems to me, that there is neither a mental nor a physical world. There are things that we are labeling as mental or physical but there is nothing that makes it physical or mental in themselves. It is not a natural kind but just a arbitrary category in which we put things and properties. That what is actually mental or physical is just our vocabulary and not the world.

There is also something that bugs me about the epistemological idealist. Correct me if I am wrong, but I assume here that they mean the external world with ultimate reality. If we can know nothing about the content of the external world, then how can we even know of its existence? Why even put an external world forward as an explanation of our sense experience if it is just a black box? We could also put forward as an alternative, that sense experience causes other sense experiences. So the reason why you can see the chair again if you are looking again at it is because there are some small bits of information in you past sense experience which memorized the chair and caused it to appear again. Of curse this is solipsism but it is as good as an explanation as the black box reality of the epistemological idealist.

What also bugs me about the black box reality, that if true, then I can not know that other people exist in an external world. So maybe they only exist inside my sense experience. This is of curse quite solipsistic in itself but this is what would follow from a black box reality view.

[HansMcc]

I am really having trouble understanding this.
one being the rejection of the material world,
I can precive objects by means of my five senses,
but where are the characteristic anchored in?
I think I am missing something, could you help?




Another is, what is spirit, in context to idealism?
And what of actual idealism?

[ArtBeyondVideo]

What if you can never have certainty about the nature of reality, but you make idealistic decisions based on the knowledge you have. In other words, you never know for sure if you are correct, but you believe that there is a correct answer to all questions.

[braudhadoch]

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[lyizz]

What are the best argument against idealism

[SethMason]

Do we know that we cannot know anything about ultimate reality?