Immaterialism

The term immaterialism has sometimes been used in different senses to denote certain ontological positions, including positions that are bound by one of the following theses:

What appears to us as matter can be reduced to conditions in the subject of knowledge : idealism . (An anti-realistic thesis.)
What appears to us as matter can be reduced to immaterial objects: spiritualism . (A realistic thesis.)
What appears to us as matter really exists, but also what is immaterial. Implies the negation of ontological materialism . (A realistic thesis.)

Concept history

The most well-known and historically most important use of the term “immaterialism” in the sense of idealism is the corresponding self-designation of the position of George Berkeley . According to this, the spatially extended outer world has no objective being, but only "exists" indirectly, insofar as it appears to the subject . The much-cited short formula “Their esse is percipi” sums this up succinctly: material objects are only insofar as they are understood, their being is being perceived .

Similar positions had been taken shortly before by Pierre de Lanion and Jean Brunet , at the same time by Arthur Collier , and then in the 19th century by Collyn's Simon .

The term “idealism” was first used by Leibniz for Platonic philosophy, but was then used in the 18th century to denote the aforementioned position, for which Wolff's use of the word is decisive.

Berkeley's philosophy was also later labeled “spiritualism”.

Denis Diderot deviates from defining immaterialism as the (third introductory cited) thesis that both the material and the immaterial exist.

Individual evidence

↑ Cf. for the first two characterizations about Art. Immaterialism , in: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon , Volume 9. Leipzig 1907, p. 769. As well as Rudolf Eisler : Art. Immaterialism , in: Dictionary of philosophical terms , Volume 1, Berlin 1904, p. 499. The term “immaterialism” is explained in detail in the sense of the first position, for example in: Walther Ch. Zimmerli: Art. Empirism , in: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon, Vol. 1/3, p. 1026.
↑ G. Berkeley: Principles, in: Luce / Jessop: Works, London 1948-57, 2, 42, § 3.
^ ^A ^b ^c ^d ^e W. Halbfass: Art. Immaterialism , in: Historical Dictionary of Philosophy , Vol. 4, p. 241.
↑ Also listed as Claude Brunet , cf. Charles James McCracken: Knowledge of the Existence of Body , in: Daniel Garber / Michael Ayers (eds.): The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998, 1, 624–48, here 647.
↑ On Lanion, Brunet and Collier cf. introductory the representations in: Charles James McCracken / IC Tipton: Berkeley's Principles and Dialogues , Background source materials, Cambridge philosophical texts in context, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2000.

[1] Cf. for the first two characterizations about Art. Immaterialism , in: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon , Volume 9. Leipzig 1907, p. 769. As well as Rudolf Eisler : Art. Immaterialism , in: Dictionary of philosophical terms , Volume 1, Berlin 1904, p. 499. The term “immaterialism” is explained in detail in the sense of the first position, for example in: Walther Ch. Zimmerli: Art. Empirism , in: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon, Vol. 1/3, p. 1026.

[2] G. Berkeley: Principles, in: Luce / Jessop: Works, London 1948-57, 2, 42, § 3.

[halbf-3] A ^b ^c ^d ^e W. Halbfass: Art. Immaterialism , in: Historical Dictionary of Philosophy , Vol. 4, p. 241.

[4] Also listed as Claude Brunet , cf. Charles James McCracken: Knowledge of the Existence of Body , in: Daniel Garber / Michael Ayers (eds.): The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998, 1, 624–48, here 647.

[5] On Lanion, Brunet and Collier cf. introductory the representations in: Charles James McCracken / IC Tipton: Berkeley's Principles and Dialogues , Background source materials, Cambridge philosophical texts in context, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2000.