Idealism and the Nature of Reality

This session will be moderated by Jon Cohen.

Idealism, in the context of philosophy, claims that reality is fundamentally of a mental nature, or is in some other way immaterial. This belief has played an important role throughout history, including Hinduism, Platonism, and notably among the German Idealists such as Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer and others.

Idealism fell out of favor for a variety of reasons, including the success of science based on the physical world to explain what we see. Nevertheless, more recent developments in quantum physics strongly challenge the notion that reality is based entirely on a physical world.

Let's explore what idealism is and why it is worth examining.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physicalism

A quantum experiment suggests there's no such thing as objective reality

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613092/a-quantum-experiment-suggests-theres-no-such-thing-as-objective-reality/

https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.05080