Philosophy of Idealism: A Dream of Ideas
In a recent post, we discussed the implications of objective reality for idealism. Now, let’s explore two other kinds of reality - and the ways idealists might interpret them.
Subjective Reality
Again, almost everyone believes that some reality is subjective. But suppose we say that everything you experience is subjective - meaning it all arises from your own consciousness. There could be many reasons for that: you’re dreaming/hallucinating, you’re in some sort of machine that manifests your thoughts, or you are God and you forgot. Whatever the reason, everything you experience is simply a piece of your own mind.
If that’s true, there’s probably no functional difference between idealism and pragmatism. Your beliefs literally create your reality. That means that reality arises from ideas (Platonic metaphysics), but it also means that ideas can be evaluated in terms of their usefulness. After all, if you don’t like something about reality, you can change it by believing something else. Therefore, the most useful ideas are also the most essentially good ideas.
Intersubjective Reality
This is reality that exists because of beliefs shared by multiple people. For example, we’ve collectively decided that the word for the color of the sky is blue. While the wavelength of that color may be objective, the word we use for it is intersubjective. It’s also called bleu, ordinak, gorm, and plava in other languages. Those are also correct within their intersubjective contexts.
That said, it’s wrong to call the sky red. Sure, the word blue is made up, but one person can still be wrong about the correct word.
Perhaps its not just languages, customs, and shared assumptions. Perhaps all of your experiences are intersubjective. Maybe we’re in a shared hallucination, or connected in some neural interface, or we are all gods and we forgot. In that case, there can be some difference between idealism and pragmatism. But no matter where you look, the prime version of something is the idea.
Let’s sum up.
If you believe that reality is mostly subjective or intersubjective, you are probably an idealist.
If you believe that reality is mostly objective and has an intelligent first cause, you are probably an idealist.
If you believe reality is mostly objective and doesn’t have an intelligent first cause, you are probably not an idealist.
There are plenty of exceptions. These are just predictions based on where those beliefs probably lead. But they can really help inform your arguments the next time you’re caught in an idealism vs pragmatism debate.
What about pragmatic philosophies? Stay tuned.