What is the difference between an idealist philosopher and a materialist philosopher
University: VZFEI
Year and city: Kursk 2010
Introduction
Philosophers want to know what is the meaning of human life. But for this you need to answer the question: what is a person? What is its essence? To determine the essence of man is to show his fundamental differences from everything else. The main difference is the mind, consciousness. Any human activity is directly related to the activity of his spirit, thought.
The history of philosophy is, in a certain sense, the history of the opposition of materialism and idealism, or, in other words, of how different philosophers understand the relationship of being and consciousness.
Materialism is matter, i.e. the basis of all the endless multitude of objects and systems existing in the world. Consciousness inherent only to man reflects the surrounding reality.
Idealism - assigns an active creative role in the world exclusively to the spiritual principle; behind him recognizing the ability to self-development. Idealism does not deny matter, but considers it as a lower kind of being - not as creative, but as a secondary principle.
Relevance of the topic: this work is relevant in that every person should know what the meaning of the world is. How do two philosophical categories, two opposites, sides of being relate.
Tasks: - to study the features of “materialism” and “idealism”. Show differences between them.
To study the basic forms of materialism in the historical development of philosophical thought
Clarify the differences between metaphysical and dialectical materialism
Subject of research: in this paper we examine materialism and idealism. We examine the essence of each philosophical soap, the differences between these concepts.
1. Materialism and idealism
Philosophers want to know what is the meaning of human life. To do this, gently answer the questions: What is a person? And what is its essence? To determine the essence of man is to show his fundamental differences from everything else. The main difference is not to look for a long time - it is the mind and consciousness. But then things begin to get more complicated. Indeed, the mind is not only a property of man. The question is, how could reason appear in an unreasonable world? Perhaps this property is not only of man, but of the world as a whole, but in man it manifests itself in a concentrated world? Any activity of a person is directly related to the activity of his spirit, thought: before you need to do something, you need to have some kind of plan for implementing what you have planned. So maybe the same order is inherent in the world as a whole? The activity and orderliness of nature, are they not derived from some ideal principle?
Different answers to this question give rise to two different ways of explaining the essence of the world - materialistic and idealistic.
Materialism is a philosophical trend that postulates the primacy and uniqueness of the material principle in the world and considers the ideal only as a property of the material.
Idealism is a philosophical trend that ascribes an active, creative role in the world to an exclusively ideal beginning and makes the material dependent on the ideal.
Both materialism and idealism are heterogeneous in their concrete manifestations. Depending on this, various forms of materialism and idealism can be distinguished.
From the point of view of the historical development of materialism, the following main forms can be noted:
- Materialism of the Ancient East and Ancient Greece is the initial form of materialism, within which objects and the world are considered on their own, regardless of consciousness and consisting of material formations and elements (Thales, Leucippus, Democritus, Heraclitus, etc.)
- Metaphysical (mechanical materialism) of modern times in Europe (17th century). At this stage, all the diversity of the world was reduced to the mechanistic form of the motion of matter (Galileo, I. Newton, J. Locke and others)
- Dialectical materialism, in which materialism and dialectics are represented in an organic unity (K. Marx, F. Engels, etc.)
- Consistent materialism - within its framework, the principle of materialism extends to both nature and society (Marxism).
- Inconsistent materialism - there is no materialistic understanding of society and history (L. Feuerbach). A specific form of inconsistent materialism is deism (from lat.deus - god), whose representatives, although they recognized God, sharply belittled his functions, reducing them to the creation of matter and giving it an initial impulse of movement (F. Bacon, J. Toland, B. Franklin, M.V. Lomonosov, etc. )
- Distinguish between scientific and vulgar materialism. The latter, in particular, reduces the ideal to the material, consciousness identifies with matter (Focht, Moleshott, Buchner).
Philosophical idealism exists in two main forms - objective and subjective:
The term "subjective" - \u200b\u200bmeans belonging to the "subject", i.e. a person dependent on him and on his consciousness. The term “objective”, on the contrary, indicates the independence of a phenomenon from a person and his consciousness. Consequently:
Objective idealism is a philosophical trend that postulates not only the primacy of the ideal principle, but also its independence from human consciousness (Plato, Hegel)
Subjective idealism is a philosophical trend that affirms the dependence of the external world, its properties and relations on human consciousness (Berkeley, Fichte). The extreme form of subjective idealism is solipsism (from Latin solus - one, only and ipse - itself). According to him, one can only speak with certainty about the existence of my own “I” and my sensations.
Within the framework of the named forms of idealism, its various varieties exist. Note, in particular, rationalism and irrationalism. According to idealistic rationalism, the basis of all things and their knowledge is the mind. One of its most important areas is panlogism (from the Greek. Pan - everything and logos - mind), according to which everything real is the embodiment of reason, and the laws of being are determined by the laws of logic (Hegel). The point of view of irrationalism (from lat. Irrationalis - unreasonable, unconscious) consists in the denial of the possibility of a reasonable and logical knowledge of reality. Here, instinct, faith, revelation, etc., are recognized as the main type of knowledge, and being itself is regarded as irrational (S. Kierkegaard, A. Bergson, M. Heidegger, etc.).
The centuries-old history of idealism is very complex. In various forms at different stages of history, he expressed in his own way the evolution of forms of social consciousness in accordance with the nature of changing social formations and a new level of development of science. The main forms of idealism arose already in ancient Greece. The classic form of objective idealism was the philosophy of Plato. Its peculiarity is its close connection with religious and mythological representations. This connection is strengthened at the beginning of our era, in the era of the crisis of ancient society, when Neoplatonism develops, fused not only with mythology, but also with mysticism. This feature of objective idealism was even more pronounced in the Middle Ages, when philosophy was completely subordinate to theology (Augustine, Thomas Aquinas). The restructuring of objective idealism, carried out, first of all, by Thomas Aquinas, was based on distorted Aristotelism. After Thomas Aquinas, the basic concept of objective-idealistic scholastic philosophy was the concept of a non-material form, interpreted as a target principle, fulfilling a will outside the natural God, who wisely planned the world, finite in time and space.
It is important to remember that any new form of philosophical knowledge arises as an attempt to solve a problem! What, let’s say, is the problem lurking behind the subjective-idealistic position, classically clearly expressed in D. Berkeley’s famous thesis: “Is the world a complex of my sensations?” Its essence is not difficult to understand. After all, how do we get any information about the outside world? Only through sensation, i.e. with the help of our senses. Does the image of the external world they have formed depend on how our senses (sight, hearing, etc.) are arranged? Of course it depends. And so, if our senses were arranged differently, the image of the outside world would be completely different! Therefore, to imagine that the world is structured exactly as it was given to us in our sensations is a great naivety. After all, the only thing that we reliably know about the outside world is the data of our own sensations. So it turns out that, in the final analysis, in any case we are not discussing the external world per se, but only about our feelings from it. This is the essence of the problem of the irremovable Subjectivity of sensory cognition, and therefore cognition as such: because the mind is connected with the outside world only through sensuality.
For an adequate understanding of the specifics of philosophical knowledge, it is also necessary to raise the question of the relationship and nature of the interaction of materialism and idealism. In particular, two extreme points of view should be avoided here.
One of them is. That there is a constant “struggle” between materialism and idealism, the “Democritus line” and the “Plato line” throughout the history of philosophy.
According to another - "the history of philosophy was not at all essentially the history of the struggle of materialism against idealism ..."
The division into materialism and idealism has existed from the very beginning of the development of philosophy. The German philosopher G.V. Leibniz (1646-1716) called Epicurus the largest materialist, and Plato the Saami as a major idealist. The classical definition of both directions was first given by the prominent German philosopher F. Schlegel (1772-1829).
“Materialism,” he wrote, “explains everything from matter, accepts matter as something first, initial, as the source of all things ... Idealism takes everything out of one spirit, explains the emergence of matter from the spirit or subjugates matter to it”
Thus, the philosophical meaning of the terms “materialist” and “idealist” should not be confused with that which is often given to them in everyday consciousness, when a materialist means an individual who seeks only to achieve material wealth, and the idealist is associated with an unselfish person characterized by exalted spiritual values \u200b\u200band ideals.
Materialism is a philosophical orientation, which, in contrast to idealism, proceeds from the fact that:
· the world is material, exists objectively outside and independently of consciousness;
· matter is primary, and consciousness is a property of matter;
· the subject of cognition is knowable objective reality.
Democritus is considered the founder of philosophical materialism. The essence of his teaching is that the world consists of atoms, i.e. material things. Plato is considered the founder of idealism. The main idea of \u200b\u200bhis teachings: ideas are eternal and unchanging, and material objects change and perish.
2. The historical forms of materialism
1.Antique materialism is the elemental materialism of the ancient Greeks and Romans, combined with naive dialectics. Ancient science has a single philosophical character: all branches of knowledge are under the auspices of philosophy.
Already the philosophers of the Milesian school stood on the positions of elemental materialism. The most clearly materialistic worldview is expressed in the work of Democritus from Abder. For the entire period of Ancient Greece, Democritus was the most knowledgeable and educated person. Hegel and Marx called him the encyclopedic mind of Greece. Democritus taught that the whole world and all its objects and phenomena consist of atoms and emptiness. Compounds of the initials - atoms (being) lead to the appearance (birth), and their decay to the disappearance (death) of objects - their transition to the void (non-existence). Atoms are eternal, indivisible, unchanging; the smallest elements of matter. Motion is the most important property of atoms and the whole real world Void: it has no density, it is one, it is formless. Genesis: absolutely dense, plural, defined by its external form. An atom is absolutely dense, lacking emptiness, not perceived by feelings due to its small size.
The materialistic ideas of Democritus were fruitfully developed by his younger compatriot Epicurus, as well as the follower of the two great Greeks, the Roman philosopher Lucretius Car.
2. Metaphysical materialism of the New Age
Metaphysical (or mechanical) materialism is materialism opposite to dialectical materialism, denying qualitative self-development through contradictions and reducing the variety of forms of movement to mechanical movement.
Metaphysical materialism of the 17-18th century is characterized by the fact that science is rapidly differentiating, being divided into separate branches that go beyond the tutelage of philosophy. There is a gap between materialism and dialectics; in materialism there are only elements of dialectics under the dominance of a general metaphysical view of the world. Metaphysical materialism (L. Feuerbach) denies the qualitative self-development of being through contradictions and tends to build an unambiguous picture of the world, exaggerating one or the other side of it: stability, repeatability, relativity. The eternal spatio-temporal existence of matter and its continuous movement are an undoubted fact for the French materialists of the eighteenth century.
Metaphysical materialism is the most consistent and least controversial of all varieties of materialism. Its representatives are usually called F. Bacon, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke and others. In general terms, the meaning of this doctrine is as follows: matter is being, fundamentally unknowable. Entities cannot be unconscious, and therefore matter is not an entity, but only an imperfect substance. Movement, time and space are subjective. Consciousness is either an attribute or a mode of matter. Our knowledge of the world (essence) is not the knowledge of matter (substance). Substance does not really depend on our knowledge, but essence is by no means an attribute of matter. Matter is a thing in itself.
3 dialectical materialism
Dialectical materialism (“diamat”) is the doctrine of the most general laws of movement and development of nature, society and thought, combining a materialistic understanding of reality with dialectics. It is characterized by internal unity, the inseparable unity of dialectics and the materialist theory of knowledge. In dialectical materialism, materialism and dialectics are organically reunited, so that a complete unity of dialectics (the doctrine of development), logic (the doctrine of thinking) and the theory of knowledge is established.
The strength of dialectical materialism was its orientation toward dialectics, which was manifested in the recognition of the fundamental cognition of the world. It was based on an understanding of the inexhaustibility of the properties and structure of matter and a detailed justification of the dialectics of absolute and relative truth as a principle of philosophical knowledge.
It arose from the transfer of Hegelian dialectics to the materialistic-monistic worldview of the late nineteenth century; the name “materialism” is often used in this case in the sense of realism (a reality independent of thinking and existing outside of consciousness).
Dialectical materialism is characterized by strict objectivity in considering any things and phenomena; versatility of consideration of the studied subject, flexibility of concepts; the inextricable connection of scientific ideas, all aspects of scientific knowledge with the concept of matter, nature, ensuring their use as relative and preventing their conversion to absolute.
The main system-forming principles of dialectical materialism are:
The principle of the unity and integrity of being as a developing universal system that includes all manifestations, all forms of reality from objective reality (matter) to subjective reality (thinking);
The principle of the materiality of the world, which states that matter is primary in relation to consciousness, is reflected in it and determines its content; (“It is not the consciousness of people that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.” - K. Marx, “Toward a Critique of Political Economy”)
The principle of knowability of the world, proceeding from the fact that the world around us is knowable and that the measure of its knowledge, which determines the degree of correspondence of our knowledge to objective reality, is social production practice;
The development principle, generalizing the historical experience of mankind, the achievements of the natural, social and technical sciences and, on this basis, asserting that all phenomena in the world and the world as a whole are in continuous, constant, dialectical development, the source of which is the emergence and resolution of internal contradictions, leading to the denial of certain states and the formation of fundamentally new qualitative phenomena and processes;
The principle of the transformation of the world, according to which the historical goal of the development of society is to achieve freedom, ensuring the comprehensive harmonious development of each individual, to reveal all of her creative abilities on the basis of the fundamental transformation of society and the achievement of social justice and equality of members of society;
The principle of partisanship of philosophy, which establishes the existence of a complex objective connection between philosophical concepts and the worldview of a person, on the one hand, and the social structure of society, on the other.
3. The difference between metaphysical and dialectical materialism.
1. Proponents of metaphysical materialism (F. Bacon, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke) reduced the variety of forms of movement to mechanical movement. Proponents of dialectical materialism (Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Plekhanov, V.I. Lenin) believed that there are 5 types of movement:
- biological;
- chemical;
- physical;
- psychological;
- socially - the highest form of motion of matter.
- The French materialists of the 18th century (Feuerbach) believed that the world is matter, fundamentally unknowable. Marxist theory, by contrast, recognized that the world is knowable in principle.
- Philosophy, and metaphysical materialism in particular, are gradually separated from science. Dialectical materialism served as the basis for science.
- Representatives of mechanistic materialism believed that truth is always objective and independent of our consciousness. Representatives of dialectical teachings were of the opinion that everything in the world is subjective, because unknowable.
5. In metaphysics, dialectics proceeds from the fact that natural contradictions are characteristic of natural objects, natural phenomena. The Marxist dialectical method considers the phenomena of nature as ever moving and changing, and the development of nature as the result of the development of contradictions in nature, the result of the interaction of opposing forces.
6. From the point of view of materialistic dialectics, nature itself embodies the sources and causes of its development. The Marxist dialectical method refutes the assertions of idealists that the real reasons for the development of objects and phenomena must be sought, not as if in matter, but outside it, that is, in the spirit, in supernatural power.
7. Metaphysicists reduce the development process to a decrease or increase in the same, to a repetition of the past, rejecting the emergence of the new and its struggle with the old. Materialist dialectics understands development as the emergence of a new one, as a transition to a higher quality state and sees the source of development in the struggle of opposites.
Conclusion
Materialism plays an important methodological role in all areas of scientific knowledge, in relation to all problems of philosophy and theoretical problems of the natural and social sciences. He shows science the right way to know the real world. When science is confronted with some complex, unresolved issue, the materialistic worldview excludes its idealistic explanation in advance and focuses on the search for the natural laws of development, real yet unknown relationships. Rejecting the idea of \u200b\u200bcreation “from nothing”, materialism puts forward the demand to look for the natural causes of the phenomena studied.
Idealism, as the doctrine opposite to materialism, contributes to the study of the world and its structure on the other, idealistic side. These two areas of philosophy, considered together, provide a complete picture of the world.
Antique materialism shows the origins and prerequisites for the origin of the studied directions, which creates the foundation for their further study.
Mechanistic materialism reflects the concept of the world in terms of mechanics and other exact sciences. This type of materialism allows you to look at the picture of the world from an accurate and rational side.
Dialectical materialism, being fundamentally the opposite of idealism, also has epistemological sources diametrically opposed to it. These are: strict objectivity of considering any things and phenomena; versatility of consideration of the studied subject, flexibility and mobility of concepts; the inextricable connection of all scientific ideas, all aspects of scientific knowledge with the concept of matter, nature, ensuring their use as relative (relational) and preventing their transformation into absolute.
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4.1) Materialism - scientific philosophical direction, the opposite of idealism. They distinguish M. as the spontaneous confidence of all people in the objective existence of the external world and as a philosophical worldview, which is a scientific deepening and development of so on. spontaneous M. Philosophical M. affirms the primacy of the material and the secondary of the spiritual, ideal, which means the eternity, the uncreated world, its infinity in time and space. Considering consciousness as a product of matter, M. considers it as a reflection of the external world, asserting the vol. cognizability of nature.
Idealism is a philosophical trend, the opposite of materialism in the solution of DOS. a matter of philosophy. I. comes from the primacy of the spiritual, intangible, and the secondary of the material, which brings him closer to the dogmas of religion about the finiteness of the world in time and space and creation by its god. I. considers consciousness in isolation from nature, by virtue of which it inevitably mystifies it and the process of cognition, and often comes to skepticism and agnosticism.
4.2) Materialism and idealism, with all their differences, have one very important similarity. Both that and other point of view considers something primary, and something secondary, one calls the cause of the world, and another - its consequence. And also, both materialism and idealism declare the material and the ideal as completely incompatible essences of the world, its opposite principles.
5) The term "metaphysics"
was introduced in the 1st century. BC e. Andronicus of Rhodes. Systematizing the works of Aristotle, he arranged "after physics" (knowledge of nature) those of them in which he was talking about the first kinds of existence, about being in itself, i.e. those that were the "first philosophy" - the science of the first causes, of the first essence and principles. At the current level of development of philosophical knowledge, three main meanings of the concept of "metaphysics" can be distinguished.
1. As a synonym for the concept of "philosophy" ie the science of the universal, the first prototype of which was Aristotle’s doctrine of supposedly higher, inaccessible to the senses, only speculatively comprehended and unchanging principles of everything existing, binding on all sciences.
2 . As a special philosophical science - ontology, the doctrine of being as such, regardless of its particular types and in distraction from the problems of epistemology and logic.
3. As a specific philosophical way of thinking (cognition), opposing the dialectical method as its antipode. It is about this aspect of the concept of "metaphysics" that will be discussed further.
In its last meaning, metaphysics means a special way of understanding movement, when, firstly, one of the opposite sides of the movement is absolutized (movement or peace), and secondly, movement is reduced to one of its forms (e.g. I. Newton's mechanical picture of the world) . Dialectic also opposes such a view.
Dialectics - the doctrine of the most general laws of the development of nature, society and knowledge and the universal method of thinking and action based on this doctrine. Of the variety of definitions of dialectics, three of the most characteristic can be distinguished: the doctrine of universal connection (determinism); the doctrine of development in its most complete and free from one-sided form; the doctrine of the unity of opposites (the "core" of dialectics). Dialectics differs from metaphysics in that it takes into account the limitations of human capabilities in the knowledge of a contradictory world, and it understands movement and development as a special contradictory process that combines moments of stability and variability, discontinuity and continuity, unity and hierarchical subordination, which reflects the hierarchy and integrity of the world of being.
Allocate objective dialectics - real world development (nature and society) and subjective dialectics is, firstly, dialectical thinking(dialectic of concepts) - reflection of the dialectical movement(development) real world; secondly, - the theory of dialectics, i.e. the doctrine of the universal laws of development, the movement of both the external world, and thinking itself.
Dialectics as a way of human thinking about the world is trying to explain the latter with the help of deriving laws and categories (a special form of human thinking describing universal features and relationships inherent not to some particular types of phenomena, but to all being). To date, 3 laws and 7 paired categories of dialectics are universally recognized. The use of paired bundles of categories (e.g. cause-effect, randomness-necessity) is necessary for the most holistic description of the contradictory world (the method for describing an object must be equal to the object itself).
CONTENT
INTRODUCTION
Philosophers want to know what is the meaning of human life. But for this you need to answer the questions: what is a person? What is its essence? To determine the essence of man is to show his fundamental difference from everything else. The main difference is the mind, consciousness. Any human activity is directly related to the activity of his spirit, thought.The history of philosophy is, in a certain sense, the history of the opposition of materialism and idealism, or, in other words, of how different philosophers understand the relationship between being and consciousness.
If a philosopher claims that at first a certain idea appeared in the world, a global mind, and all the diversity of the real world was born from them, then this means that we are dealing with an idealistic point of view on the main issue of philosophy. Idealism is such a type and a way of philosophizing that assigns an active role in the world exclusively to the spiritual principle. Idealism does not deny matter, but considers it as the lowest kind of being - not as creative, but as a secondary principle.
From the point of view of the supporters of materialism, matter, that is, the basis of the entire infinite set of objects and systems existing in the world, is primary, therefore a materialistic view of the world is fair. Consciousness, inherent only to man, reflects the surrounding reality.
Thus, the aim of this work is to study the characteristics of materialism and idealism.
To achieve the goal, the following tasks were set:
- consider materialism and idealism as the main directions of modern philosophy;
to study the historical forms of materialism;
show the difference between metaphysical and dialectical materialism, using knowledge from the history of philosophy.
1. Materialism and idealism
Materialism (from lat. ma terialis-real)philosophical worldview according to whichmatter (objective reality) isontologically primary onset (cause, condition, limitation), andperfect (concepts, will, spirit and the like) - secondary (result, consequence). Materialism Recognizes Existencesubstances - matter; all entities are formed by matter, and phenomena (including consciousness) are processes of interaction of material entities.Idealism (fr. Idealisme, through lat. Idealis from other Greek.? ??? - idea) - a term for a wide range of philosophical concepts and worldviews, which are based on the statement of primacy. In many historical and philosophical worksdichotomy considering the opposition of idealismmaterialism essence of philosophy.
The main issue in philosophy is traditionally considered the question of the relation of thinking to being, and being - to thinking (consciousness).
The importance of this issue lies in the fact that the construction of a holistic knowledge about the world and the place of a person in it depends on its reliable resolution, and this is the main task of philosophy.
Matter and consciousness (spirit) are two inextricable and at the same time opposite characteristics of being. In this regard, there are two sides to the main issue of philosophy - ontological and epistemological.
The ontological (existential) side of the main question of philosophy is to pose and solve the problem: what is primary - matter or consciousness?
The essence of the epistemological (cognitive) side of the main question: is the world cognizable or unknowable, which is primary in the process of cognition?
Philosophers divided into two large camps according to how they answered this question. Those who claimed that the spirit existed before nature, and which, therefore, ultimately recognized the creation of the world one way or another, and among philosophers, for example Hegel, the creation of the world often takes on an even more confused and ridiculous appearance than in Christianity, made up an idealistic camp. Those who considered nature to be the main principle joined various schools of materialism.
Materialism recognizes primary as matter, nature, and consciousness, thinking as secondary, derived from matter. The material world that surrounds us exists forever, always, the materialists say. Nobody created it. It exists independently of the will and consciousness of people. Consciousness, the carrier of which on Earth is man, is a product, the result of the development and functioning of matter, nature.
Idealism, in contrast to materialism, considers something intangible as primary, namely, consciousness, spirit, idea. Spirit, consciousness, according to idealists, exists before nature and independently of it. They consider matter, nature as the result of the creative activity of consciousness, spirit. The spiritual, in their opinion, generates, determines the existence of material, nature.
This is an everlasting dilemma and, one might say, ineradicable. Everyone wants to be either materialists or idealists. Now let us turn in more detail to the fundamental structure of European thinking - Platonism.Plato, the philosopher of the so-called high classics in ancient philosophy (late V-IV centuries BC), decided to combine the general and the particular, the cosmic and the human in his teaching. The beautiful material cosmos, which has gathered many entities into one inseparable whole, lives and breathes, the whole is filled with infinite physical forces, but then it is controlled by laws that are outside of it, beyond. The most general laws by which the whole cosmos lives and develops make up a special supra-cosmic world, which Plato calls the "world of ideas," eternal and motionless in its highest beauty. Matter itself cannot produce anything. She is only a "nurse" or "perpetrator." The world of ideas is timeless, it does not live, but abides, rests in eternity. Plato discovered the idea as something in common. The idea of \u200b\u200ba thing is not the thing itself, but its meaning and essence. The idea of \u200b\u200ba thing is an indication of the totality of the essential properties of a thing, their composition and structure, their purpose, and generally their meaning. This was the discovery of Plato.
The European philosophical tradition moves within problems and within the framework of thought patterns set by Plato and his followers.
Within the framework of this tradition, the great philosopher-dialectician of the 19th century worked. G.V.F. Hegel (1770-1831). For Hegel, true being is an absolutely thinking thought to itself. Hegel defined truth as the goal of philosophy. Truth for Hegel is the absolute certainty of an absolute subject who knows himself. According to the talented German philosopher W. Hösle, a principle that precedes both nature and the ultimate spirit can be understood as an objective mind. Objective mind is an aggregate concept for the designation of all pre-experienced (a priori) truths that determine the existence of the world and can be grasped by finite thinking when turning to oneself. Without a world of ideal values, it is impossible to formulate and resolve two burning problems of our time: environmental and communication of different cultures (the development of a dialogical mind). This is the creation of a new dialogue with nature and a difficult way to recognize divergence in the modern world.
At the first stage of the development of materialist philosophy, the basis, substance, of the material world were thought of as separate sensually perceived elements, or physical atoms. The second stage of its development was the mechanism. Here, matter was identified with matter and endowed with a number of mechanical and geometric properties: mass, length, shape, impermeability, and the ability of bodies to move along mechanical trajectories. In the dialectical materialist views of V.I. Lenin revealed an understanding of matter as an objective reality given to us in sensations. The development of knowledge does not negate the fact of the existence of objective reality, and the materiality of the world is most deeply reflected in the philosophical category of matter. The strength of materialist philosophy lies in the study of specific mechanisms of self-movement, self-development of matter.
K. Marx and F. Engels, materialistically rethinking Hegel's ideas, developed their own concept of the self-motion of matter. According to this concept, oppositely directed actions, i.e. the struggle of internal tendencies, processes, processes is the main source of its movement, change and development. The role of the source of movement is played by the struggle of the main, specific, main opposites that are inherent in the object. It follows that the researcher, in order to find out what causes the change or development of a particular object, must, firstly, try to distinguish the role of opposites inherent in the studied object from the influences exerted on it from the outside. Secondly, it is necessary to find out exactly which internal opposites are the main ones for this or that object that distinguish it from all others.
The strength of the materialistic worldview also lies in the fact that a person is seen as, above all, a practical being. Practice, as a specifically human way of being in the world, is an activity that has a complex organization system.
2. Historical forms of materialism
Philosophical materialism has three main forms:- Antique (naive) materialism of ancient Greek philosophy.
Metaphysical materialism with its varieties (mechanism, carbon monomialism).
Modern or dialectical materialism.
The naivety of this materialism is expressed in two points:
a) the lack of development of the conceptual apparatus of philosophy, as a science - water, fire, air instead of the philosophical concept of matter. In Thales, water is a symbol, a certain characteristic of a bodily substance - its variability, its ability to take on any specific form.
b) a method of substantiating philosophical ideas. In the conditions of complete absence of experimental (experimental) natural science, the only way of scientific explanation could be direct observation of natural phenomena and the hypothesis based on it, for example, Democritus’s doctrine about atoms was essentially a hypothesis, the truth of which was confirmed only in the 19th century. Democritus himself proved the reality of atoms in the following way: the evaporation of water, visible in the dust.
Mechanistic (metaphysical) materialism (17-18th centuries). This is the era of the new time, it is characterized by the rise of scientific thought, because for the development of industry it was necessary to have an accurate knowledge of the laws of nature. This rise of scientific thought is characterized, first of all, by the works of I. Copernicus (1473-1543), G. Galileo (1564-1642).
Galileo is seen as the forerunner of materialism of modern times. He is the first pronounced representative of natural science materialism. According to Galileo, nature itself is inert and, in order to get into a state of movement, it needs a prime mover, of which God is. God tells the universe a certain order, brings it into a state of motion, but then nature changes according to its own laws, which do not need divine intervention.
At that time, many scientists (Newton, Bacon, Lomonosov, Locke, Rousseau), protecting science from religion in this way, declared nature a means of knowing science. Galileo, on the other hand, considers the experiment, including mentally, as a means of knowing nature, a means of consciousness of nature, acting as the founder of experimental natural science.
Isaac Newton and his scientific works had such a great influence on the subsequent development of physics that only the emergence of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics convinced physicists of the one-sided mechanistic picture of the world and showed the boundaries of the truth of classical mechanics.
The mechanistic picture of the world did not immediately emerge with the formulation of classical mechanics and the laws of universal gravitation, but only in the 19th century on the basis of the development of thermodynamics and electrodynamics. But the basis of this picture was Newton’s laws, which turned out to be absolutely accessible and suitable for explaining any processes of nature, although the laws of thermodynamics are from the laws of mechanics.
Materialism of the 17-18th centuries makes a significant contribution to the creation of a mechanistic picture of the world. materialism of this period is called mechanistic and metaphysical due to the nature of this period:
- The mechanism, principle and laws of classical mechanics were considered universal, suitable for explaining other processes of nature.
Metaphysical, from the empirical nature of physics, chemistry, biology of this period. The collection of facts of study separately, the predominance of analytical methods of research, gave rise to a special style of philosophical thinking called metaphysics.
Inconsistency, the line of materialism was not maintained to the end in a number of ontological problems, primarily the problems of movement and consciousness.
V. I. Lenin also upholds this thesis against “subjectivists,” the school of so-called physiological idealism, and thereby against the German physiologists Johannes Müller (1801-1858) and German Helmholtz (1821-1894). These major researchers, based on the physiological characteristics of subjective forms of reflection (vision, hearing), studied by psychology, questioned the indispensable source of all reflections - a consciousness-independent reality.
The subjectivist understanding of sensations was supplemented by a misinterpretation of the concept of experience. Dialectical materialism understands by experience the historical process of research of reality independent of our consciousness. In contrast, for positivism, the question of the relationship between experience and reality is a “seeming question”. Positivism believes that it is not a matter of accumulating evidence of experience with respect to the real world, but only of streamlining our “most economical” experiences, V. I. Lenin argues the absurdity of the “principle of economy of thinking Mach, which contradicts science, is“ more economical ” "Think" an atom indivisible or consisting of positive and negative electrons? .. It is enough to pose a question to see the absurdity, subjectivity of the application of the category of "saving thinking" here. Man’s thinking is then “economical” when it correctly reflects objective truth, and the practice, experiment, industry serves as the criterion of this correctness. ” Things exist you us, our perceptions and ideas are only their images. "Testing these images, separating the true from the false is given by practice."
Cognition and experience enable it to more accurately reflect reality; they lead, as Engels put it, to the fact that they are unknown! still “things in themselves” finally turn into known “things for us!” “In fact, every person has seen the simple and obvious transformation of“ a thing in itself ”into a phenomenon,“ a thing for us, ”millions of times. This transformation is knowledge. ” In contrast to the idealistic distortions inherent in positivism, V. I. Lenin characterizes and develops in the spirit of Marxism the epistemological category of truth.
3. Metaphysical and idealistic idealism
Characterizing the Marxist dialectic method, the classics of Marxism-Leninism single out the struggle of opposites as the main feature of the entire dialectical development process.“The driving principle of all development,” Engels wrote, “is the division into opposites, their struggle and resolution.” The recognition of internal contradictions in objects and natural phenomena V. I. Lenin considered the core of all Marxist dialectics as a science. “In the proper sense, dialectics is the study of contradictions in the very essence of objects,” he wrote.
In contrast to metaphysics, dialectics proceeds from the fact that natural contradictions are characteristic of natural objects, natural phenomena. The Marxist dialectical method considers the phenomena of nature as ever moving and changing, and the development of nature as the result of the development of contradictions in nature, the result of the interaction of opposing forces.
In contrast to idealism and metaphysics, dialectical materialism sees a source of development in the internal struggle of opposites objectively inherent in every subject, phenomenon.
The process of development from the lowest to the highest in nature and society proceeds not in the order of harmonious development of phenomena, but in the order of disclosing contradictions, in the order of struggle of opposites.
The disclosure of the development process as a struggle of opposites allows us to more specifically and deeply understand the essence of all the basic features of the Marxist dialectical method. The struggle of opposites is a special kind of interconnectedness and interdependence of phenomena, the interaction of opposing forces in nature and society.
From the point of view of materialistic dialectics, nature itself embodies the sources and causes of its development. The Marxist dialectical method refutes the assertions of idealists that the real causes of the development of objects and phenomena must be sought, as if not in matter, but outside of it, that is, in the spirit, in supernatural power. The metaphysical denial of internal contradictions in nature and in society leads to an unscientific, idealistic recognition of supernatural, intangible sources of movement. Metaphysically-minded philosophers consider the presence of contradictions in cognition as an argument in favor of statements about the unknowability of the world, as a sign of the impotence of the human mind. The metaphysical method leads to idealism. The data of the history of philosophy and science fully confirm this. So, for example, the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle did not look for the source of the movement of real things in matter itself, which he considered inert, but in a pure form, that is, outside of matter. This led Aristotle to the recognition of the divine prime mover, i.e., to a retreat from materialism and the side of idealism.
The German philosopher I. Kant argued that all opposing forces in nature neutralize each other and as a result of this there is no supposedly internal source of movement in nature. From this metaphysical position, Kant made an idealistic conclusion: the world as a whole is nothing, and only by the will of another it is something, Kant considered the contradictions of the finite and infinite in nature not as objectively existing, but as evidence of the powerlessness of the human mind to know the world and sought to subjugate the science of religion, to belittle knowledge in order to clear the place of faith.
Not only philosophers, but also naturalists made idealistic conclusions, not understanding the internal contradictions in objects and phenomena of nature. Thus, Newton, discovering the objective laws of mechanical motion, metaphysically approached the question of the source of planetary motion around the Sun. Newton saw this source not in the interaction of opposing forces in nature, but in non-material strength, that is, in a god who supposedly informed the world, in particular the bodies of the solar system, the first impulse.
Bourgeois biologists of the 19th and 20th centuries, not being able to find the truly motive forces of the change of organisms, speak of a mystical, non-material life force (the so-called vitalists).
Metaphysicists reduce the development process to a decrease or increase in the same, to a repetition of the past, rejecting the emergence of the new and its struggle with the old.
Materialist dialectics understands development as the emergence of a new one, as a transition to a higher quality state and sees the source of development in the struggle of opposites.
Dialectical materialism fights against a metaphysical approach to nature and society. Exposing metaphysics on the contradictions of the development process also meant a blow to idealism.
The classics of Marxism-Leninism, having mercilessly criticized the metaphysical approach to the phenomena of nature and society, showed that the metaphysical method, denying the internal contradictions of objects and phenomena, leads, in the end, to an idealistic interpretation of the world.
F. Engels in his work Anti-Dühring exposed the metaphysical assertion of Dühring that the world was once in a state of absolute peace in itself and that there are supposedly no internal contradictions in nature. Engels showed that, although Dühring verbally proposed to ban religion in his utopian socialist state of the future, in reality he, denying internal contradictions in nature, provided the basis for an idealistic conclusion about God as a source of movement in the world.
One of the favorite methods of modern metaphysicians in the struggle against the dialectical method of Marx is the assertion that the internal contradictions in the objects and phenomena of nature and society revealed by science are supposedly only evidence of errors in thinking, only logical, and not vital contradictions. These arguments of the enemies of dialectics are fully exposed by the data of science and practice.
The material collected over many centuries of the history of the natural sciences on the structure and movement of bodies, on the development of plants and animals irrefutably proves that nature is characterized by objective internal contradictions that exist independently of people's consciousness. All objects and phenomena have their negative and positive sides, their past and future, obsolete and developing, old and new.
These sides of objects and phenomena are called opposites. Relations (struggle) of opposites, which are the motive power of development, are called dialectic contradictions.
Science has revealed internal contradictions in such a phenomenon of nature as the mechanical movement of bodies in space.
Science has long discovered contradicting each other and at the same time inherent in nature itself forces: attraction and repulsion.
Only materialistic dialectics was able in the struggle against metaphysics and idealism to draw the right conclusions from the discoveries of modern natural science, considering the development of nature as a result of the interaction of opposing forces. The knowledge of contradictions in nature makes it possible to actively use the forces of nature and the social and productive activities of people.
The struggle of opposites, intrinsic to objects and natural phenomena, is an objective regularity of the whole material world - the motive power of the development process. This is proved by the whole history of science and the experience of the development of society.
Marxist dialectics proceeds from the fact that in nature and in society there are internal contradictions inherent in objects and phenomena, and external contradictions between objects and phenomena coexisting simultaneously.
The Marxist dialectical method teaches to comprehensively analyze the development process, relying on the data of science and practice, to reveal in any phenomenon both the positive and negative sides of the studied objects and phenomena. But at the same time, the Marxist dialectic method does not require a contemplative attitude towards the contradictory sides of objects and phenomena, but the most active support of the new, with the future, and the most active struggle against the old, the obsolete.
The Marxist dialectical method shows the significance of the Marxist theory of the class struggle, the implacable class, proletarian politics, the importance of communist partisanship, principle.
Marxist dialectics shows the importance of criticism and self-criticism as a specific form of cadre education, as a form of disclosing and overcoming non-antagonistic contradictions in the development of Soviet society.
The law of the struggle of opposites is the most important feature of the Marxist dialectical method, the essence and core of materialist dialectics precisely because it reveals the most profound inner content of the development process.
CONCLUSION
Thus, as a result of this test work, the following factors were identified:- Materialism (from lat. materiali s-real)philosophical worldview according to whichmatter (objective reality) isontologically primary onset (cause, condition, limitation), andperfect (concepts, will, spirit and the like) - secondary (result, consequence).
Idealism (fr. Idealisme, through lat. Idealis from other Greek.? ??? - idea) - a term for a wide range of philosophical concepts and worldviews, which are based on the statement of primacyconsciousness in relation to matter . In many historical and philosophical worksdichotomy considering the opposition of idealismmaterialism essence of philosophy.
Philosophical materialism has three main forms: antique (naive), metaphysical, modern, or dialectical.
Metaphysical materialism is characterized by the rise of scientific thought, since the development of industry required an accurate knowledge of the laws of nature.
Dialectical materialism, in contrast to idealism, considers sensations, ideas and thoughts as subjective reflections of objective reality.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Philosophy: Textbook for universities / Ed. prof. V.N. Lavrinenko, prof. V.P. Ratnikova. 1-3 ed. -M .: UNITY-DANA, 1998-2004.
Oiserman T.P. The main philosophical directions. - M .: 1971.
Spirkin A.G. Philosophy. - M .: Gardariki, 2001.
Philosophy. University course. - M .: FAIR-PRESS, 2003.
Philosophy: Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Gardariki, 2004.
Idealism in philosophy is a trend that claims that our spirit, subconscious and conscious, thoughts, dreams and everything spiritual are primary. The material aspect of our world is considered to be something derivative. In other words, the spirit gives rise to matter, and without thought there can be no object.
General concepts
Based on this, many skeptics believe that idealism in philosophy is acceptance. They give examples where convinced idealists plunge into the world of their dreams, regardless of whether they concern a specific person or the whole world. Now we will consider two main varieties of idealism and compare them. It is also worth noting that both of these concepts, although often characterized by opposite dogmas, are the exact opposite of realism.
in philosophy
The objective current in philosophical science appeared in ancient times. In those years, people still did not share their teachings as such, so this name did not exist. The father of objective idealism is considered to be Plato, who concluded the whole world around people in the framework of myth and divine stories. One of his statements has passed through the centuries and is still a peculiar slogan of all idealists. It consists in disinterestedness, in the fact that the idealist is a person who strives for higher harmony, for higher ideals, despite minor adversities and problems. In antiquity, a similar course was also supported by Proclus and Plotinus.
This philosophical science reaches its climax during the Middle Ages. In these dark centuries, idealism in philosophy is a church that explains any phenomenon, any thing, and even the very fact of a person’s existence as an act of the Lord. The objective idealists of the Middle Ages believed that the world as we see it was built by God in six days. They completely denied evolution and any other gradations of man and nature that could lead to development.
The idealists separated from the church. In their teachings, they tried to convey to people the nature of one spiritual principle. As a rule, objective idealists preached the idea of \u200b\u200buniversal peace and understanding, the realization that we are all one, which can achieve the highest harmony in the universe. On the basis of such semi-utopian judgments idealism was built in philosophy. This trend was represented by such personalities as G.V. Leibniz, F.V. Schelling.
Subjective idealism in philosophy
This trend was formed around the 17th century, in those years when there was even the slightest opportunity to become a free person, independent of the state and the church. The essence of subjectivity in idealism is that a person builds his world through thoughts and desires. Everything that we see, feel, is only our world. Another individual builds it in his own way, respectively, otherwise sees and perceives it. Such “isolated” idealism in philosophy is a kind of visualization as a model of reality. Representatives are I.G. Fichte, J. Berkeley, as well as D. Hume.
The most important philosophical problem is the question of primacy: from which substance - material or ideal - did the world arise? When answering this question already in ancient philosophy two opposite directions took shape, one of which reduced the beginning of the world to material substance, the other to ideal. Later, these directions in the history of philosophy were called “materialism” and “idealism”, and the question of the primacy of material or ideal substance was called the “main issue of philosophy”.
Materialism is a philosophical trend, the representatives of which believe that matter is primary, and consciousness is secondary.
Idealism is a philosophical trend, the representatives of which believe that consciousness is primary, and matter is secondary.
Materialists claim that consciousness is a reflection of the material world, and idealists say that the material world is a reflection of the world of ideas.
A number of philosophers believe that it is impossible to reduce the origin of the world to one of two substances. These philosophers are called dualists (from lat. Duo - two), because they affirm the equality of two principles - both material and ideal.
In contrast to dualism, the position of recognition of the primacy of one of two substances - material or ideal - is called philosophical monism (from Greek monos - one).
The classical dualistic system was created by the French philosopher Rene Descartes. Dualism is often attributed to the philosophy of Aristotle, Bertrand Russell. Monistic teachings are, for example, the idealistic systems of Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Hegel, the materialistic philosophy of Epicurus, Holbach, Marx.
Materialism is the oldest philosophical trend. Aristotle, considering the early philosophical teachings, says that the oldest of them considered the beginning of all things to be matter: “Of those who first took up philosophy, the majority considered the beginning of all things to be just the beginnings in the form of matter: what all things consist of, from what first they arise and into what ultimately collapse. "
The early materialistic philosophers reduced the beginning of things to some material element - water, fire, air, etc. The most prominent materialist theory of early antiquity was the atomistic theory of Democritus (c. 460 - c. 370 BC). Democritus developed the idea of \u200b\u200bthe smallest indivisible particles of matter as the primary principle of the world, which he called atoms (from the Greek atomos - indivisible). Atoms, according to the theory of Democritus, are in constant motion, which is why all the phenomena and processes in nature arise. It is impossible to see atoms (or comprehend in any other sensual way), but their existence can be realized by the mind.
In the era of Athenian classics (4th – 3rd centuries BC), materialism began to gradually lose its influence, almost completely giving way to idealism as the dominant philosophy in the era of late Hellenism (2nd – 3rd centuries BC), as well as in middle Ages.
The revival of materialism takes place in the New Age, along with the revival of natural science. The heyday of materialism comes with the Enlightenment. The largest enlightenment-materialists created on the basis of scientific discoveries of their time a new doctrine of matter, not only as primary, but also as the only existing substance.
So, Holbach, to whom the classical definition of matter belongs, reduced to everything that exists in the Universe: “The Universe, this colossal combination of everything that exists, everywhere shows us only matter and movement. Its totality reveals to us only an immense and continuous chain of causes and effects.”
Consciousness was also considered by the materialists of the Enlightenment as a peculiar manifestation of material forces. The enlightener philosopher Lametri (1709 - 1751), a medical doctor by training, wrote a treatise "Man-Machine", in which he described the materialistic essence of human nature, including consciousness.
“In the entire Universe there is only one substance (matter - Auth.), Which is mutated in various ways,” Lametri wrote. “... The soul is a term without content, beyond which there is no definite idea and which the mind can use only to denote that the part of our body that thinks. "
In the nineteenth century. in German materialist philosophy, a direction has developed that is called "vulgar materialism." Philosophers of this direction K. Vogt (1817 - 1895), L. Buchner (1824 - 1899) and others, relying on the achievements of the natural sciences, especially biology and chemistry, absolutized matter, asserting its eternity and immutability. “Matter, as such, is immortal, indestructible,” wrote Buchner. “Not a single speck of dust can disappear without a trace in the Universe and not a single speck of dust can increase the total mass of matter. Great is the merit of chemistry, which proved to us ... that continuous change and the transformation of things is nothing more than a constant and continuous circuit of the same basic substances, the total amount and structure of which has always remained and remains unchanged. " Absolutizing matter, vulgar materialists identified consciousness with one of its forms - the human brain.
Dialectical materialism (Marxism) became the opponent of vulgar materialism, considering consciousness not as a form of existence of matter, but as a property of one of its types. According to dialectical materialism, matter is not an eternal and unchanging substance. On the contrary, it is constantly changing, constantly being in a state of development. Developing, matter reaches in its evolution such a stage at which it acquires the ability to think - to reflect the world around it. Consciousness, according to the Marxist definition, is a property of highly organized matter, which consists in the ability to display the world around us. Unlike vulgar materialism, which identified the highest form of development of matter with the human brain, Marxism considered human society to be the highest form of development of matter.
Idealism believes that the primary substance is spirit. Various idealistic teachings defined this root cause of the world in different ways: some called it God, others called the Divine Logos, others called the Absolute Idea, fourth called the world soul, fifth called the man, etc. The whole variety of idealistic concepts comes down to two main varieties of idealism. Idealism is objective and subjective.
Objective idealism is called the idealistic movement, whose representatives believe that the world exists outside of human consciousness and is independent of human consciousness. The fundamental principle of existence, in their opinion, is the objective, pre-human and independent of the existing consciousness, the so-called "Absolute spirit", "world mind", "idea", God, etc.
Historically, the first objective idealistic philosophical system was the philosophy of Plato. According to Plato, the world of ideas is primary in relation to the world of things. Initially, there are not things, but ideas (prototypes) of all things - perfect, eternal and unchanging. Incarnating in the material world, they lose their perfection and constancy, become transient, finite, mortal. The material world is an imperfect semblance of an ideal world. The philosophy of Plato had the strongest influence on the further development of the objective-idealistic theory. In particular, it has become one of the most important sources of Christian philosophy.
The most fundamental objective-idealistic system is religious philosophy, which states that the world was created by God from nothing. It is God, as the highest ideal substance, that creates the whole existing world. The systematizer of the medieval scholasticism Thomas Aquinas wrote: "We believe God as the beginning not in the material sense, but in the sense of the producing cause."
The religious form of idealism in philosophy has been preserved in subsequent eras. Many of the great idealist philosophers of the New Age, explaining the root causes of the world, ultimately came to the need to recognize the existence of God as the "root causes of the root causes." So, for example, the mechanistic philosophers of the 17th-18th centuries, who absolutized the mechanical movement, were forced to admit that there had to be a force that gave a primary impulse, a “first impulse” to the world movement, and this force is nothing but God.
The largest objective-idealistic system of the New Age was Hegel's philosophy. What was called "God" in religious idealism was called the "Absolute Idea" in the Hegelian system. The absolute idea in Hegel’s teaching is the creator of the rest of the world - nature, man, all private ideal objects (concepts, thoughts, images, etc.).
According to Hegel, the Absolute Idea, in order to know itself, is first embodied in the world of logical categories - in the world of concepts and words, then in its material "other being" - nature, and, finally, to see itself more precisely from the outside, the Absolute Idea creates man and human society. Knowing the world around him, a person creates a new ideal world, the world of the objectified ideal (ideal, created by specific people, but independent of them), the world of spiritual culture. In this objectified ideal, in particular in philosophy, the Absolute Idea, as it were, meets with itself, is aware of itself, is identified with itself.
Subjective idealism is an idealistic movement, whose representatives believe that the world exists depending on human consciousness, and, possibly, only in human consciousness. According to subjective idealism, we ourselves create the world around us in our minds.
Representatives of this direction argue that the world always appears to man in the form of his subjective perceptions of this world. What is behind these perceptions is impossible to find out in principle, therefore it is impossible to reliably state anything about the objective world.
The classical theory of subjective idealism was created by English thinkers of the 18th century. George Berkeley (1685-1753) and David Hume (1711-1776). Berkeley argued that all things are nothing but the complexes of our perceptions of these things. For example, an apple, according to Berkeley, acts for us as a cumulative sensation of its color, taste, smell, etc. "Exist," according to Berkeley, means "to be perceived."
“Everyone will agree that neither our thoughts, nor passions, nor ideas formed by the imagination exist outside our souls. And it is no less obvious to me that various sensations or ideas imprinted in sensuality are as if mixed or combined nor were they among themselves (that is, whatever objects they formed), cannot exist otherwise than in the spirit that perceives them, "Berkeley wrote in his treatise On the Principles of Human Knowledge.
Hume in his theory emphasized the fundamental impossibility of proving the existence of the external in relation to consciousness, i.e. objective world, because between the world and man there are always sensations. He argued that in the external existence of a thing, i.e. one can only believe in its existence before and after its perception by the subject. “Imperfections and narrow limits of human cognition” do not allow to verify this.
The classics of subjective idealism did not deny the possibility of the actual existence of a world external to human consciousness, they only emphasized the fundamental unknowability of this existence: between a person and the objective world, if one exists, his subjective perceptions of this world are always found.
The extreme version of subjective idealism, called solipsism (from Latin solus - alone and ipse - itself), believes that the outside world is only a product of human consciousness. According to solipsism, there really is only one human mind, and the whole external world, including other people, exists only in this single consciousness.