Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!yale!decvax!tektronix!teklds!cae780!amdcad!amd!intelca!qantel!lll-lcc!lll-crg!rutgers!husc6!ut-sally!im4u!milano!wex From: wex@milano.UUCP Newsgroups: talk.philosophy.misc Subject: Re: Realism, nominalism, positivism (was Re: Quine against meaning) Message-ID: <2470@milano.UUCP> Date: Thu, 2-Oct-86 12:26:06 EDT Article-I.D.: milano.2470 Posted: Thu Oct 2 12:26:06 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 09:08:19 EDT References: <2382@utai.UUCP> <1211@bunker.UUCP> Sender: wex@milano.UUCP Organization: MCC, Austin, TX Lines: 46 In article <1211@bunker.UUCP>, garys@bunker.UUCP (Gary M. Samuelson) gives dictionary defintions of a number of philosophical concepts, most of which seem pretty good. Rather than discuss them, I will try to answer a question he raised: > Idealism: "1a(1): a theory that ultimate reality lies in a realm > transcending phenomena (2): a theory that the essential nature > of reality lies in consciousness or reason; b(1): a theory that > only the perceptible is real (2): a theory that only mental > states or entities are knowable." > > Frankly, I don't understand definition 1a(1). This definition is derived from the works of Plato who was the first (known) idealist. What happened was basically this: Plato looked around him and saw a group of things that were called "men" and another group that were called "chairs" and another group... He also noted that people had some sense that one member of these groups was better than another. Even though people couldn't always formalize their criteria for ranking or agree on which thing was better, still everyone seemed to do *some* kind of ranking. He then hypothesized that for each group (and indeed, for all groups not yet discovered) there was a "perfect" object that totally exemplified that group. These perfect objects existed in "Plato's heaven" (that is distinct from the Judeo-Christian heaven or the Greek Olympus - it was a theoretical, unreachable place). Plato's heaven contained all and only these objects; this also included objects like numbers - there was an ideal "number 2" of which all others were imperfect copies! This explanation had certain benefits - it explained all the phenomena Plato had observed and it helped explain some of the ways we treat things like numbers (for example, I am not inclined to say "My number 2 is even, how about yours?"). The objects in Plato's heaven were "ideal" objects and thus this sort of belief became known as "idealism". Other, later, philosophies also laid claim to that name, a fact reflected by the four-part dictionary definition. -- Alan Wexelblat ARPA: WEX@MCC.ARPA or WEX@MCC.COM UUCP: {seismo, harvard, gatech, pyramid, &c.}!ut-sally!im4u!milano!wex "True victory is victory over oneself."