In the last post, we said that idealism is concerned with the essential nature of an idea. That’s a handy definition for debaters, but it doesn’t quite capture the full concept of idealism. Let’s go deeper.

Idealism claims that the thing and the idea of the thing are inseparable.

Within this philosophy, there are a variety of different schools of thought. They arrive at similar conclusions, but the underlying thinking can be quite different. As always, we won’t endorse or oppose anything in this series. We’re just here to help you understand the concepts. It’s your job to figure out what to believe.

Objective reality is reality that exists outside of individual consciousness.

In other words: it is possible for everyone to be wrong about it. Your mind evaluates philosophical concepts, picks a breakfast cereal, and decides whether or not to pet the dog. You interact with the objective world with your senses: touch, sight, balance, time, etc. Your senses give you raw data, but they could be wrong. You could misinterpret what your senses are telling you (like mishearing someone) or not get the data you need (like not hearing someone at all).

Here’s my favorite “proof” of objective reality. Suppose you’re descending a staircase, but you’re staring at your phone instead of watching where you’re going. You think you’ve reached the bottom of the stairs, but there’s one step left. So you plant your foot on air. For an instant, you’re free falling. Adrenaline pumps through your veins. No harm is done, of course. But that moment of complete surprise happened because your perception of reality desynced from objective reality.

Almost no one believes that everything is objective. There are at least some subjective (coming from you) experiences, like dreams. But some people believe that there is no objective reality at all. They might say that everything you experience arises from your own mind.

Your beliefs about the existence of objective reality play a big part in how you engage with idealism. But believe it or not, there are idealist views on both extremes of the subjective-objective spectrum.

Up next: Platonic Idealism.