Idealism is a family of metaphysical views each of which gives priority to the mental. The best-known forms of idealism in Western philosophy are Berkeleyan idealism, which gives ontological priority to the mental (minds and ideas) over the physical (bodies), and Kantian idealism, which gives a kind of explanatory priority to the mental (the structure of the understanding) over the physical (the structure of the empirical world). Although idealism was once a dominant view in Western philosophy, it has suffered almost total ...
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Idealism is a family of metaphysical views each of which gives priority to the mental. The best-known forms of idealism in Western philosophy are Berkeleyan idealism, which gives ontological priority to the mental (minds and ideas) over the physical (bodies), and Kantian idealism, which gives a kind of explanatory priority to the mental (the structure of the understanding) over the physical (the structure of the empirical world). Although idealism was once a dominant view in Western philosophy, it has suffered almost total neglect over the last several decades. This book rectifies this situation by bringing together seventeen essays by leading philosophers on the topic of metaphysical idealism. The various essays explain, attack, or defend a variety of idealistic theories, including not only Berkeleian and Kantian idealisms but also those developed in traditions less familiar to analytic philosophers, including Buddhism and Hassidic Judaism. Although a number of the articles draw on historical sources, all will be of interest to philosophers working in contemporary metaphysics. This volume aims to spark a revival of serious philosophical interest in metaphysical idealism.
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Although a leading philosophical movement of the 19th century, idealism was criticized severely with the rise of analytic philosophy of language beginning in the early 20th century. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that contemporary philosophy owes its rise to the rejection of idealism. Still, broad philosophical traditions seldom disappear but instead get modified to meet criticism. So it is with idealism. While rejected by most philosophers, it hasn't disappeared. A detailed look at philosophical writings beyond the famous names will show more idealistic tendencies in thought than might be supposed. Thus, while this new book, "Idealism: New Essays in Metaphysics" itself acknowledges the marginalization of idealism, each essay in the volume has its own reference list which suggests substantial continued activity in idealist thought. In reading this book, I was reminded of an earlier book of essays, "Contemporary Idealism In America" (1932) edited by Clifford Barrett. Written more than 75 years ago, the book attempted to revitalize philosophical idealism at a time idealism was perhaps less in fashion than it is today. The book includes essays by philosophers who are still remembered, including W.E. Hocking, Charles Bakewell, and Edgar Brightman, among others.
This new book includes essays by what looks to be a younger group of philosophers The book is edited by Tyron Godschmidt, visiting Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University and a specialist in Berkeley, and Kenneth Pearce, Usher Assistant Professor of Berkeley Studies at Trinity College, Dublin. The book consists of 17 challenging essays which discuss and generally try to defend various forms of philosophical idealism. The term "idealism" is difficult to pin down and covers a variety of philosophical positions. The authors say in their Introduction that idealism "endorses the priority of the mental", a statement which leaves room for a variety of interpretations. Idealism can be roughly understood by contrasting it with physicalism and with what is often called property dualism. A difference in tone is apparent between this volume and the 1932 collection of essays. The philosophers in this volume are much more at home with the language and argumentative techniques of analytic philosophy than were the writers in the earlier book. Thus, many of the essays argue for one form or another of idealism within the language of the currently prevailing philosophical movement. It is valuable to see the attempt to restate idealistic thought in these terms, but it can make for difficult reading in several of the essays.
Idealism almost always has a spiritual focus, also loosely defined, and that is the case with the essays here. Many but not all of the essays take theistic positions. Some, including Brownyn Finnegan's essay "Buddhist Idealism" Helen Yetter-Chappell's study "Idealism Without God" are valuable for their separation of idealism from theism. As several of the essays point out, many theists do not hold to philosophical idealism.
The volume includes two, possibly three, essays critical of philosophical idealism by Graham Oppy,
Marc Lange, and Sara Bernstein. A good way to approach this book would be to begin with Oppy's essay, "Against Idealism". This is a broad-based, well-written essay in which Oppy raises many of the strong positions advanced against idealism from a naturalistic perspective. Oppy also includes important thoughts about the way rival philosophical positions may be assessed, both internally and internally. Reading the essay in its entirety, Oppy is less rejecting of the possibility of an idealist metaphysics than might be supposed. His essay is a foil to most of the other essays in the book. I found it valuable to read most of the remaining essays and to consider how, if at all, they met the criticisms in Oppy's naturalistic essay.
The book includes four essays which defend and restate the early British idealism of Berkeley, including the essay by Yetter-Chappell mentioned earlier. There are essays, some highly technical, on Kant's transcendental idealism, including Nicholas Stang's fine restatement, "Transcendental Idealism without Tears". The Absolute Idealism prevalent late in the 19th Century receives relatively little attention with the exception of an excellent essay by Kris McDaniel on "The Idealism of Mary Whiton Calkins". Calkins had been involved in the 1932 "Contemporary Idealism in America" book, but she died while the collection was in process. Her work deserves to be better known.
The book proceeds with an essay by Samuel Lebens on idealism in the Jewish Hasidic and mystical tradition and an essay by Brownwyn Finnegan on Buddhist idealism. These essays both are fascinating on a philosophical tradition that, in my understanding, is not at the center either of Judaism or of Buddhism.
Several interesting essays in this book attempt to reframe idealism by moving it from a claim about objects (only ideas are real) to a claim about concepts and about the mind's role in shaping reality. The essay by Stang and the difficult essay by Ahmed on Kant both may be read this way, together with Thomas Hofweber's essay on conceptual idealism and Kenneth Pearce's essay "Mereological Idealism". Taken together, I found these essays among the most provocative in the volume.
Some of the latter essays in the book focus on idealism, science, and causation. The essays by Daniel Greco and Jacob Ross discuss idealism in the context of "fine tuning" -- the physical constants that science has discovered and that some philosophers, including those sympathetic to theism, use to support modern variants of the argument from design and of the cosmological argument. The most challenging essay that considers idealism and science is Susan Schneider's "Idealism or Something Near Enough" which concludes the volume. Schneider uses the philosophy of mathematics, in part, two reject physicalism and property dualism. She also rejects, but less firmly, idealism or what is sometimes called panpsychism, in favor of a view she calls panprotopsychism, in which basic reality as pre-mental components but not full-fledged ideas. Her essay, which will bear further development, takes insights of earlier forms of idealism and develops them in new ways based upon developments in the sciences.
In the 1932 collection of essays, Clifford Barrett's Preface tried to summarize what was of value in idealistic thought over and above the separate essays comprising the volume. He wrote:
"The writers present no doctrinal creed and attach no claim of finality to their conclusions. To hold views concerning what is ultimate and absolute in the universal order is one thing, bu to suppose that one's views regarding these things are either ultimate or absolute is a very different thing, -- yet the two have often been strangely confused by the critics of Idealism. Confidence in the ultimacy of value and rationality in the universe inspired enthusiasm in the prospect of what has and what may be achieved by human thought, but also, it inspires a sincere modesty in the philosopher who considers the fragmentariness of his own insight"
Barrett's observation could serve for this new collection of idealistic essays as well. The new book could have benefited from some of the philosophical vision and passion more evident in the early collection.
This book will not persuade every reader of the vitality of philosophical idealism. The essays are challenging and provocative and explore the continued robustness of metaphysical and idealistic thought. The book will be of most interest to readers with a strong background in philosophy.