3
Idealism
An essential component of the particular argument I am making regarding the extension of ethnophilosophy concerns the precise nature of the philosophy I seek to include . My claim in this paper extends only as far as seeking to identify ‘ idealist ’ philosophy in the work of certain women from the past , who despite in some cases being well known historical figures , have not been recognised as philosophers .
Idealist philosophy involves a mode of thought quite alien to many people in secular twenty-first century societies , in that it asserts that external reality , if it exists at all , fundamentally consists not of physical objects existing in time , occupying space and obeying the laws of physics , but instead is solely a metaphysical or spiritual reality , consisting of entities such as souls and love . 8 Admittedly , this is quite an extreme form of idealism ( which comes in many types ), but it is nevertheless illustrative of how different some academic philosophy can be to what might be termed ‘ conventional thought ’.
Berkeley
The reintroduction of idealism into academic discourse began in 1710 , when George Berkeley , later Bishop of Cloyne , published A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge . 9 In this work Berkeley set forth an ingenious and lengthy argument regarding the fundamental nature of reality , the essence of which is that what we think of as material objects only exist when they are perceived , and , as they do not vanish when we do not perceive them , must continued to be perceived by an omnipresent consciousness ; to Berkeley , this proved God ’ s existence .
Berkeley redefined what we think of as material objects in an important but often misrepresented way . He was not suggesting that a person kicking a brick and suffering pain as a result was mistaken regarding the existence of her or his foot , the brick or the pain , but instead he argued that these entities are real , but do not exist outside the mind .
8
Hilary Putnam , ‘ How to be a Sophisticated Naïve Realist ’ in Philosophy in an Age of Science ( Cambridge Mass .: Harvard University Press , 2012 ), 252 .; John M . E . McTaggart , The Nature of Existence , Vol . 1 & Vol . 2 ( London : Cambridge University Press , 1920 , 1927 )
9
George Berkeley , ([ 1710 ] 1948 – 1957 ). The Works of George Berkeley , Bishop of Cloyne . A . A . Luce and T . E . Jessop ( eds .). London : Thomas Nelson and Sons . 9 vols . Of the Principles of Human Knowledge : Part 1 , Works 2 , 41-113 .