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Yes, I read it after reading the comments on this page, expecting a silly mess. But no, it was well-written, for that kind of piece - it's popular internet jour
by yesenadam 8y ago
Yes, I read it after reading the comments on this page, expecting a silly mess. But no, it was well-written, for that kind of piece - it's popular internet journalism, not a professional philosophy journal, people! For what it's worth, the 'matter is made from consciousness' view does seem unlikely in the extreme to me.
I thought it was strange the term '(philosophical) idealism' wasn't used once, as it seems that's what most of the article was describing. Maybe she didn't want to confuse people with the more common meaning of 'idealism' today (to do with ideals, not ideas). Russell was a Hegelian idealist for a few years in the mid-1890s, like a lot of British (and American) philosophers, and published a book on Leibniz in 1900. (It's probably not a great introduction to the subject, but David Stove's Idealism: A Victorian Horror-Story is a very funny long essay by the Australia philosopher, mostly ridiculing the arguments used in support of idealism, in detail. Stove's Gem - winner of his Worst Argument in the World competition[0] - is worth being able to recognize in the wild.)
[0] https://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/worst.html https://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/worst.html
- knowThySelfx 8y ago"Maybe matter is made from waves/vibration could be more plausible?" Thinking about Quantum Double Slit Experiment and such.