I. Various Types of Idealism

Idealism: In metaphysics idealism, as the opposite of materialism (q.v.), is the doctrine that ultimate reality is of the nature of mind, or thought-content; in epistemology it is the view that knowledge is merely subjective, i.e., limited to ideas and states of mind. The terns is also employed in art, where it denotes an effort to realize the highest types of natural objects by eliminating all defects peculiar to individual specimens. In its popular acceptation idealism represents an imaginative treatment of subjects and a striving after perfection. Plato was the earliest representative of metaphysical idealism. Dissenting from the view of Heraclitus that everything is in a state of flux and flow, he formulated, in the interest of ethics, his doctrine of eternal unchanging ideas. These ideas, or incorporeal essences, exist objectively in a supersensuous world and form the background and basis of the ever-changing phenomenal world. Reality is not inherent in the individual object, as, for instance, a horse or a tree, but in the general idea of horse or tree. The highest idea is the idea of the Good--a self-realizing end.

In modern philosophy at least three kinds of metaphysical idealism are distinguished, viz., subjective idealism, objective idealism, and absolute idealism. The first is represented by Fichte, who found the source of the object, or external world, in a universal subject or ego. Starting with this universal ego he regarded its antithesis, the nonego, which is created by the ego, as an obstacle necessary to the realization of the intelligent and ethical self. The ego (not the phenomenal self, but the universal self common to all finite selves) sets up an object as a limit, but only to transcend it, thus giving free play to its own activity. This is done in the successive stages of knowledge, beginning with sensation and ending with moral perception. Fichte's thought is ethical, and in his view nature exists only as material for the realization of duty. Since his system describes what ought to be, rather than what is, he called it practical idealism. If all limiting non-egos, including that of finitude, could be actually transcended, the universal self then attained to would be God. The term objective idealism may be applied to any system of metaphysics that recognizes a spiritual reality existing independent of a conscious subject (Plato, Leibnitz, Herbart, etc.); but this term has usually been reserved to describe.the system of Schelling. By combining Fichte's doctrine of the universal ego with the Spinozistio idea of a neutral basis of all existence, Schelling developed his system of identity. In the Absolute object and subject, the-real,and the ideal, nature and spirit, are identical. This original undifferentiated unity, which is perceived by intellectual intuition, breaks up into the polar opposites of object and subject, nature and spirit, negative or positive being. Though the subjective and objective phases of being are always coexistent in the phenomenal world, in pronsciousness there is a preponderance of the subjective, while in nature,

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the negative pole of being, there is a preponderance of the objective. Hegel is the originator and greatest representative of absolute idealism. According to this metaphysical doctrine, existence is not only spiritual, but it is a single, all-inclusive (therefore absolute), self-conscious being, which manifests itself as nature and spirit. In this view phenomena are neither subjective products, nor copies, nor effects, of a transcendent reality, but are parts of the living reality itself. They are phenomena per se, and exist objectively as the thoughtcontent of the absolute mind, or Absolute Idea, to use Hegel's expression. The phenomenal world, therefore, is the real world, and there is no other world. With Hegel existence is rational throughout; and, indeed, the entire process of history is only the self-unfolding of the one universal divine reason. Absolute idealism has now almost completely vanished from German speculation, though it has gained a strong foothold in English and American thought. Prominent representatives of the doctrine are F. H. Bradley and Joaiah I1,Oy08.

In its epistemologicalreference idealism is the opposite of realism. While the realist asserts that we have knowledge of an external reality, the ideal ist maintains that we can know only phenomena or ideas in the sense of Locke. If the idealist denies the existence of such an external reality,, holding that ideas are only modifications of the mind, he becomes a subjective idealist in the epistemologi cal sense. If he be consistent, he will deny the existence of other persons than himself and become a solipsist; for in his view such persons could exist only as ideas in consciousness. Perhaps the nearest approach to such a view was made by Bishop Berkeley, who held, though not consistently, that esse is percipi. If the idealist admits that phe nomena are not purely subjective, that they have a certain problematical existence, he becomes a cos mothetic idealist. Descartes, Kant, and most English philosophers have been coemothetic ideal ists. HUHZRT EvANs.

Il. German Idealism: By German Idealism is meant that phase of intellectual life that had its origin in the Enlightenment (q.v.), as i. The modified by German conditions. Eng Move- lish and French representatives of the ment Char- Enlightenment, giving precedence to acterlzed. sensation, had become empiricists and skeptics. They viewed the world as a great mechanism, adopted hedonism as their ethics, and interpreted history from a subjectiveoritical point of view. The situation in Germany was just the reverse. There thought was given precedence over sensation; and, instead of empiricism, idealism was dominant. Ethics was based upon norms of universal validity, instead of upon individual whim; history was interpreted genetically as a rational progress; and for the mechanical conception of the world the organic, or dynamic, view was substituted. Nature was seen to be spiritual, as well as spatial, and was interpreted teleologically. In the hands of Jacobi and Kant Hume's skepticism became the weapon that destroyed the influence of empiricism. and thus paved the way for idealism. For the Germans, at least, Rousseau's radicalism brought into question the value of the culture-ideals of the Enlightenment, and impelled them to seek the basis of culture in the creative power of the mind. For the philosopher German idealism usually means the philosophy of Kant and his immediate followers, while for the historisu of literature it may mean little more than the personality of Goethe; and it is not unusual to characterize the literary aspect of the movement as neo-Humanism. However, there is a unity in the movement that cannot be ignored; and all its varied manifestations, whether in science, philosophy, literature, art, or, social life, are properly treated under the title "German Idealism."

Several factors contributed to give the Enlightenment in Germany its peculiarly independent character; but notable was the ins. Leibnitz fluence of Leibnitz, and that of the

and the Pietists. Leibnitz was an essentially Pietists. religious personality, and in trans-

planting the spirit of the Enlightenment into Germany he imparted to it that distinctively ethical and religious flavor which became characteristic of German Idealism: It was he who was chiefly instrumental in substituting the teleological for the mechanical view of nature. He transformed the atoms of the materialists into monads, or psychical entities, and substituted for natural law his theory of preestablished harmony. He asserted the absolute worth of the individual against the. destructive monism of Spinoza, and saw in the progress of history a movement of the monads toward some divine end. On the one hand, he made the development of materialism and skepticism impossible in Germany, and, on the other hand, he brought about the teleological explanation of the history of the univerbe as a whole. The teleological and idealistic tendencies of Leibnitz were strengthened through Pietism (q.v.). Klopstock, Herder; Jacobi, Goethe, and Jean Paul, all betray in their works the Pietistic influence.

The conceptual framework of German Idealism was provided by Immanuel Kant (q.v.), who was the first to reconcile the conflicting 3. Kant's empirical and rationalistic elements of Transcen- the prevailing dogmatic philosophy. dentalism With one stroke he secured for mind priority over nature, and yet without endangering in the least the validity of the principles of scientific investigation; and, by giving the primacy to the practical reason, he placed religion and ethics on a sure footing and broke the ban of rationalism. In the first instance Kant's work was purely epistemological. He made it particularly his problem to rescue natural science front the (epistemological) skepticism of Hume, and then to rescue religion from rationalism. It was Kant who utterly demolished the rationalistic arguments of Anselm, Descartes, and others, for the existence of God. Science is valid, but it has to do only with phenomena. This phenomenal world, however, is produced a priori by the activity of consciousness, reacting upon that external reality whose nature cannot be known. The very fact that the world as we know it is only the sum total of phenomena accounts for the constancy of experience, and. is

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the basis of the universal validity of certain principles of explanation. Space and time, and the categories of the understanding are subjective, ideal. Taken together they form a mold in which we shape the impressions coming from the transcendent reality. Thus, the principles of science and the laws of nature are universally valid because they are in the subject, not in the object. Knowledge of ultimate reality comes through the practical reason, particularly through the a priori moral, law in us. Kant's idea of inner freedom became the inspiration of the creative genius. The phase of German Idealism manifested in the art and poetry of the period has been called esthetic-ethical idealism. The leaders of this artistic movement, who really popularized idealism and made it part of the life of the time, were not intent upon solving the old philosophical problems. For conceptual thought they substituted the creative imagination:

Klopstock and Wieland mark the turning-point toward idealism, though their oontempotary, Lessing, was the first representative of 4. Lessing, the movement to liberate himself Herder, completely from conventional theology and and Others. all that was arbitrary and external in German culture and find in the inner esthetic and ethical development of the mind the ideal to be followed. Idealism in the sense in which the word is here used became even more effective in the work of Herder., His break with the Enlightenment was complete. In his large application of the idealistic method to the interpretation of science, art, and history, he practically reformed all the intellectual sciences. He, too, proceeded from an analysis of the poetic and artistic impulse, and in the creative activity of the mind he found the key to ethics, esthetics, and religion. From this subjective, or idealistic, view-point he saw the panorama of history as a spiritualistic development. If Leming's great work was to introduce idealism into esthetics, particularly the esthetics of dramatic poetry, Herder's greatest service to the idealistic cause was his application of idealism, as a method, to the interpretation of history: What Wieland, Leasing, and others had done for poetic art, this Winckelmann did for plastic art. He too found in the conception of the free creative mind the basis of ethics, esthetics, and religion.

The great representatives of the idealistic type of mind in German poetry were Goethe and Schiller. Against the exclusive claims of the g. Goethe, esthetic view of nature, and a morality Schiller, essentially classical, Goethe emphasised and Others. the moral and religious worth of the individual, thus approaching the rigorous ethical. teachings of Kant. Schiller combined the epistemology of Kant with the pantheism of Goethe. With him esthetic values were the chief types of intellectual norms; and his ethics and religion might be regarded as a phase of esthetics. However, the esthetic harmony that he found in the universe reacted on his ethical and religious nature; and, despite his esthetic view-point, he must be classed with Kant and Fichte as one of the great moral ,teachers of Germany. Schiller's only ooasistent follower was Wilhelm von Humboldt, who was instrumental in bringing about the neoHumanistic reform, on the basis of the new esthetioethical culture. Jean Paul was a brilliant representative of the anti-classical type of idealism.