Idealism

POLITICAL SCIENCE

1. Idealism (Idea- ism): Idealism is a term with several related meanings. It comes directly from the Greek " idealismos " which derives from the word (idea ). Man has two facets: spiritual and material . When the emphasis is on realization of spiritual life, it is called idealism. Idealist does not have considerations for material values of life. To the idealist ‘Mind and Soul’ rather than the ‘Matter and the Body’ are more important.

2. Continue Idealist believe that ideas are the only true reality. The material world is characterized by change, instability, and uncertainty; We should be concerned primarily with the search for truth. Since truth is perfect and eternal, it cannot be found in the world of matter that is both imperfect and constantly changing. Idealist have idolized the Mind beyond everything. Idealism is the philosophical theory that reality is essentially mental or spiritual. We should be concerned primarily with the search for truth . Since truth is perfect and eternal, it cannot be found in the world of matter that is both imperfect and constantly changing. Idealism

3. Example To an idealist, the concept of “chair” is important. You could destroy all the chairs in the world but they would still exist in the mind. The idea of a chair is the ultimate truth.

4. Leaders of Idealism Plato (427-347 BC) St. Augustine ( 350-430) Descartes (1596-1650) Berkeley (1685-1753) Kant (1724-1804) J. G Fichte (1762-1814) G.W.F Hegel(1770-1831) T.H Green (1836-1882) B. Bosanquet (1848-1923)

5. Idealist Philosophers In the West, Idealism dates as far back as Pythagoras (600 BCE) Plato first formalized idealism through his “Theory of the Forms”

6. Idealist Philosophers Augustine ( 350-430 ) He argued that what is real is the spiritual world; the flesh is only temporary People do not create knowledge; God has already created it, but people can discover it through trying to find God.

7. Descartes (1596-1650) Wrestled with the question of what was real and did he really exist (perhaps he was a dream). He finally concluded: “I think, therefore I am” Thinking and ideas are the ultimate truth.

8. George Berkeley Berkeley claimed that only the conscious minds and ideas/perceptions are reality. The external world is a collection of perceptions we mistakenly call physical reality. For Berkeley, all the things we perceive around us are nothing more than bundles of our perceptions/ Berkeley’s Idealism included two elements: objective and subjective Subjective - all we know are our own ideas Objective - Independent of our perceptions;

9. Continue Berkeley argued that all objects are bundles of perceptions For example, a certain color, taste, smell, figure and consistency go together, and are one distinct thing, given by the name apple. Because perceptions can exist only in a mind, all objects exist only in the mind, and there is no independent material reality outside the mind

10. The idealist theory of the State The state has many aspects; sociological, political, economic, historical legal, psychological, biological and ethical . According to idealism its moral aspect outweighs all the other aspects . The state is fundamentally and essentially the supreme means to good life and only secondarily an association for legal action ., or an agency for the better production and the distribution of wealth . Thus political philosophy thus becomes an ethical study

11. The main tenets of the idealist-ethical theory of the state It views man as a social or political animal in the sense of the he can develop his potentialities in and through member of the state. The idealists theory conceives the state as fundamentally an ethical association. There can be no opposition between the individual and the state. The idealist theory credits the state with a life, personality and will of its own, distinct from and transcending the lives, personalities and wills of its citizen

12. Continue 5. Law as the expression of passionless reason and not merely as the command of a human sovereign. 6. The general tendency of the idealist theory is regard the state as a self-sufficing entity, and thereby to identified it with the whole of the society . 7. The state is based on will not on force.

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