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Metaphysical idealism asserts that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental in nature.
But surely, today, idealism seems like a bit of a silly idea.
Remarkably, however, idealism is experiencing a renaissance in science and philosophy.
How can this be possible?
The Demise of Physicalism
The doctrine of physicalism, idealism's antithesis, posits that everything in the universe can be reduced to or explained by physical entities, their properties, and interactions. Consequently, mental phenomena like consciousness are ultimately explained by physical properties and events. Surely, to deny physicalism is tantamount to rejecting science.
Physicalism emerged as a response to religious dogma and the dominant worldview of the Late Middle Ages.,
Instrumental to this novel worldview was the reductionist reasoning and the scientific method, implicitly assuming physicalism, was born.
Nonetheless, physicalism is a metaphysical belief, just like idealism.
Nothing in our sciences requires or demonstrates its validity.
It is a commonsensical, albeit naïve, conception of reality.
The edifice of science is constructed from an intricate mathematical architecture, allowing for incredible insights into the workings of nature. This unprecedented success is still witnessed by the emergence of ever more breathtaking technological prowess.
In a nutshell, science tells us how reality works. Unfortunately, it is very silent on the essence of reality.
This is the purview of philosophy, rendering both physicalism and idealism competing but scientifically unprovable claims.
The assumed foundations of a material reality began to crumble.
The human mind was faced with ontological uncertainty.
Making matters worse, science and philosophy had marginalized the subjective first-person perspective.
As a result, only the hypothetical, detached, and uninvolved third-person perspective held academic validity, thus excluding consciousness's prime quality, namely the content of phenomenal experience.
In the 1990s this shortcoming was exposed and spelled out in the hard problem of consciousness.
As science and physicalist philosophy still cannot account for the emergence of consciousness from unconscious matter, specifically its first-person perspective, a pragmatic solution was found in redefining what constitutes consciousness.
Either phenomenal consciousness is not what it seems or does, in fact, not exist at all.
Suddenly, the pragmatic and commonsensical position of the physicalist appears patently absurd, as it requires us to question the very essence of our own existence.
Even more troublingly, we can never actually empirically observe matter outside and independent of our consciousness, for we are forever locked in consciousness.
Everything we ever experience we perceive through our consciousness.
The Rise of Idealism
Today, idealism has a hard standing. To the staunch physicalist, it reflects silly and childlike wishful thinking, notably a refusal to maturely endure the metaphysical nihilism imposed by a cosmos that is, with absolute certainty, impersonal, meaningless, and random.
To the theist, the concept will sound acutely and threateningly blasphemous, heretical, and sacrilegious, surely the message of a deceitful and tempting demonic presence.
However, to the shaman, mystic, meditator, and psychonaut, this metaphysical proposition describes experienceable realities, just as real as consensus reality viewed through the lens of sober waking consciousness.
The contours of the information-theoretic paradigm shift unfolding in physics are becoming more apparent.,
The shaman, mystic, meditator, and psychonaut, long ignored by the Western mind, finally get to have their say in decoding the nature of existence.
The central theme of this newly emerging and experienceable knowledge is the resurgence of idealism.
Still mostly ignored by the scientific and philosophical orthodoxy, there are many contemporary rational and sober thinkers endorsing variations of idealism appropriate for our modern day and age.
The hegemony of physicalism is being scientifically challenged.
To the philosophically uninitiated person who considers themselves a critical and rational thinker with great reverence for science, it may come as a big surprise that physicalism is not only just a belief but that it is severely challenged by modern enigmas related to the fundamental nature of reality and consciousness.
Some early pioneers of quantum physics, who bravely grappled with the incomprehensible weirdness of the newly exposed level of reality, held distinct panpsychist or idealist intuitions. However, the shut-up-and-calculate doctrine would soon be adopted in theoretical physics, leaving no room for philosophical considerations.
Nonetheless, such idealist suspicions about the foundations of reality would never quite be extinguished.
Indeed, today, a new generation of physicists is reconsidering the dogma of the third-person perspective.
On the horizon, we see the unfolding of a new scientific narrative.
One in which consciousness is fundamental.
One which takes the ignored metaphysical implications of over a hundred years of quantum weirdness seriously.
One that does not trivialize the subjective first-person perspective.
One that sees profound metaphysical relevance in the phenomenal accounts of shamans and mystics, over the ages.
Ever since the human mind awoke to its own existence, it has wondered about its cosmic significance.
Perhaps now, equipped with a new kind of science that is informed and guided by a brave new philosophy, it can devise tools epistemically powerful enough to finally find answers.
See this post for more information.
But surely, today, idealism seems like a bit of a silly idea.
Remarkably, however, idealism is experiencing a renaissance in science and philosophy.
How can this be possible?
The Demise of Physicalism
The doctrine of physicalism, idealism's antithesis, posits that everything in the universe can be reduced to or explained by physical entities, their properties, and interactions. Consequently, mental phenomena like consciousness are ultimately explained by physical properties and events. Surely, to deny physicalism is tantamount to rejecting science.
Physicalism emerged as a response to religious dogma and the dominant worldview of the Late Middle Ages.,
Instrumental to this novel worldview was the reductionist reasoning and the scientific method, implicitly assuming physicalism, was born.
Nonetheless, physicalism is a metaphysical belief, just like idealism.
Nothing in our sciences requires or demonstrates its validity.
It is a commonsensical, albeit naïve, conception of reality.
The edifice of science is constructed from an intricate mathematical architecture, allowing for incredible insights into the workings of nature. This unprecedented success is still witnessed by the emergence of ever more breathtaking technological prowess.
In a nutshell, science tells us how reality works. Unfortunately, it is very silent on the essence of reality.
This is the purview of philosophy, rendering both physicalism and idealism competing but scientifically unprovable claims.
The assumed foundations of a material reality began to crumble.
The human mind was faced with ontological uncertainty.
Making matters worse, science and philosophy had marginalized the subjective first-person perspective.
As a result, only the hypothetical, detached, and uninvolved third-person perspective held academic validity, thus excluding consciousness's prime quality, namely the content of phenomenal experience.
In the 1990s this shortcoming was exposed and spelled out in the hard problem of consciousness.
As science and physicalist philosophy still cannot account for the emergence of consciousness from unconscious matter, specifically its first-person perspective, a pragmatic solution was found in redefining what constitutes consciousness.
Either phenomenal consciousness is not what it seems or does, in fact, not exist at all.
Suddenly, the pragmatic and commonsensical position of the physicalist appears patently absurd, as it requires us to question the very essence of our own existence.
Even more troublingly, we can never actually empirically observe matter outside and independent of our consciousness, for we are forever locked in consciousness.
Everything we ever experience we perceive through our consciousness.
The Rise of Idealism
Today, idealism has a hard standing. To the staunch physicalist, it reflects silly and childlike wishful thinking, notably a refusal to maturely endure the metaphysical nihilism imposed by a cosmos that is, with absolute certainty, impersonal, meaningless, and random.
To the theist, the concept will sound acutely and threateningly blasphemous, heretical, and sacrilegious, surely the message of a deceitful and tempting demonic presence.
However, to the shaman, mystic, meditator, and psychonaut, this metaphysical proposition describes experienceable realities, just as real as consensus reality viewed through the lens of sober waking consciousness.
The contours of the information-theoretic paradigm shift unfolding in physics are becoming more apparent.,
The shaman, mystic, meditator, and psychonaut, long ignored by the Western mind, finally get to have their say in decoding the nature of existence.
The central theme of this newly emerging and experienceable knowledge is the resurgence of idealism.
Still mostly ignored by the scientific and philosophical orthodoxy, there are many contemporary rational and sober thinkers endorsing variations of idealism appropriate for our modern day and age.
The hegemony of physicalism is being scientifically challenged.
To the philosophically uninitiated person who considers themselves a critical and rational thinker with great reverence for science, it may come as a big surprise that physicalism is not only just a belief but that it is severely challenged by modern enigmas related to the fundamental nature of reality and consciousness.
Some early pioneers of quantum physics, who bravely grappled with the incomprehensible weirdness of the newly exposed level of reality, held distinct panpsychist or idealist intuitions. However, the shut-up-and-calculate doctrine would soon be adopted in theoretical physics, leaving no room for philosophical considerations.
Nonetheless, such idealist suspicions about the foundations of reality would never quite be extinguished.
Indeed, today, a new generation of physicists is reconsidering the dogma of the third-person perspective.
On the horizon, we see the unfolding of a new scientific narrative.
One in which consciousness is fundamental.
One which takes the ignored metaphysical implications of over a hundred years of quantum weirdness seriously.
One that does not trivialize the subjective first-person perspective.
One that sees profound metaphysical relevance in the phenomenal accounts of shamans and mystics, over the ages.
Ever since the human mind awoke to its own existence, it has wondered about its cosmic significance.
Perhaps now, equipped with a new kind of science that is informed and guided by a brave new philosophy, it can devise tools epistemically powerful enough to finally find answers.
See this post for more information.
