Book Title: ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 04
Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies
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2.2.a
Idealism and Realism in Western and Indian Philosophies
Dr. Sohan Raj Tater
Idealism And Realism in Western And Indian Philosophies Over the centuries the philosophical attitude in the west has never been constant but undulated between Idealism and Realism. The difference between these two appears to be irreconcilable, being more or less bound up with the innate difference of predispositions and tendencies varying from person to person. Given below is a brief introduction to the views of different western and Indian philosophers.
A. Western Idealism
1. Platonic Idealism
The Idealism of Plato is objective in the sense that the ideas enjoy an existence in a real world independent of any mind. Mind is not antecedent for the existence of ideas. The ideas are there whether a mind reveals them or not. The determination of the phenomenal world depends on them. They somehow determine the empirical existence of the world. Hence, Plato's conception of reality is nothing but a system of eternal, immutable and immaterial ideas.
2. Idealism of Berkeley
Berkeley may be said to be the founder of Idealism in the modern period. The existence of things must be determined by perception of idea: 'Esse est percip'i. This type of Idealism may be regarded as subjective Idealism. According to Berkeley, it is the individual mind that determines the existence of external objects. For the emergence of perception the existence of external objects independent of mind is necessary. Without an external and independent object no perception is possible. To overcome this difficulty Berkeley established a new doctrine later works known as "esse est concipi". In this new doctrine he placed the word 'conception' meaning thereby "to exist is to be conceived".
3. Idealism of Kant
The Idealism of Kant consists in that the world of our knowledge is an ideal construction out of sense manifold to which alone the forms and categories of understanding are confined and, therefore, is known as objective Idealism. It is subjective in the sense that knowledge does not reach out to the world of things-in-themselves. He argues that reality cannot be grasped by our knowledge because our judgment is conditional, relative and partial. We cannot know a thing as it is but we know it as our experience reveals. His view of the Transcendental Unity of Appreciation is more important as regards the unity of knowledge. All knowledge presupposes the synthetic unity of pure appreciation, because unless there is synthetic unity, no knowledge is possible. This idea of synthetic unity of pure Appreciation leads Kant quite near the conception of soul, which is not accepted by him outwardly.
4. Idealism of Bosanquet
While explaining the nature and functions of thought, Bosanquet says: "The essence of thought is not in a mental faculty, but in the objective order of things. We bring the two sides together if we say, it is the control exercised by reality over mental process. He puts in his own words Implicit in all the modes of experience which attracted us throughout, it is now considered in its own typical manifestations, in which the idea of system, the spirit of the concrete universal, in other words, of individuality, is the central essence.[2) On this very fundamental basis he defines error as simply an inadequate determination without a system, which leaves alternative possibilities open, i.e. dependent on unknown conditions. (3) The Idealism of Bosanquet, establishes the monism of the spirit which is at once the unity of experience and the unity of
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STUDY NOTES version 4.0
