Idealism

Critical Analysis of the Idealism School

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Abstract

Idealism is an educational philosophical school which philosophers have come up with and it states that our material world is mental and does not acknowledge materiality. The school was propagated by philosophers such as Plato and other Neo-Platonist philosophers. This report summarizes the main ideas proposed by the idealism school of philosophy after which it presents the strengths of the school, its weaknesses and insights on the key attractions to this school. These lead to a useful critique and thus to a better understanding of the school and its importance in the present day educational setting.

Critical Analysis of the Idealism School

Idealism is a view propagated by Plato and his followers and it states that the world and all we know in it that is material exists only in consciousness, in spirit, so to speak and can on only be comprehended mentally mainly as ideas. There are two main forms of idealism: metaphysical idealism and epistemology (Howard, 2007). Metaphysical idealism focuses on reality being an idea, while Epistemology is completely opposed to realism and that anything could be independent of the mind. Generally idealism is opposed to materialism-the view that basic matter in the world is really material- and realism- the view that objects of human knowledge are grasped and seen as they are (Howard, 2007).

Basic arguments of idealism

Idealism presents the four basic arguments that are explained below.

a) Esse est percipi: “To be is to be perceived”

According to this argument, all of the characteristics of objects can be sensed as stated by Howard (2007). For example, hardness/softness is the sensing of a resistance to a striking action, just as color is a quality of visual experience. The qualities can only be perceived by a body with the sensory organs (sight, touch etc).

b) The reciprocity argument

It is closely related to esse est percipi argument since the subject...