subjective idealism

American  

noun

Philosophy.

1. a doctrine that the world has no existence independent of sensations or ideas.

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subjective idealism British  

noun

1. philosophy the theory that all experience is of ideas in the mind

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Other Word Forms

• subjective idealist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of subjective idealism

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

subjective idealism

For example, here in Japan, subjective idealism, illusion, wishful thinking or emotion occasionally starts to drive diplomacy walk alone to nowhere, with no solid or cold-blooded calculation.

From Newsweek ● Dec. 21, 2009

It is always for the liberty of man as an individual, never for men as a herd, that he contends; as his favourite phrase, "subjective idealism," constantly insists.

From Suspended Judgments Essays on Books and Sensations by Powys, John Cowper

It is suggested chiefly by an ambiguity in the word "pain," which has misled many people, including Berkeley, whom it supplied with one of his arguments for subjective idealism.

From The Analysis of Mind by Russell, Bertrand

The intellect of the race must be held sacred, must be held intact; and its artists and writers permitted to go their way and follow their "subjective idealism" as they please, without let or hindrance.

From Suspended Judgments Essays on Books and Sensations by Powys, John Cowper

Metaphysic thus escapes the imputation of leading us into subjective idealism.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, October 1847 by Various