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

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

This is the theory of Hegel, in whose system of philosophy the subjective idealism of Kant culminates in the doctrine of "Absolute Identity."

From Christianity and Greek Philosophy or, the relation between spontaneous and reflective thought in Greece and the positive teaching of Christ and His Apostles by Cocker, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)

With the various forms of subjective idealism it is usual to contrast the doctrine of Objective Idealism.

From An Introduction to Philosophy by Fullerton, George Stuart

Again, that the real contrary to realism is subjective idealism is confirmed by the history of the theory of knowledge from Descartes onwards.

From Kant's Theory of Knowledge by Prichard, Harold Arthur

It was, however, impossible for Descartes to be content with a subjective idealism that confined all knowledge to the tautological expression of self-consciousness “I am I,” “What I perceive I perceive.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 4 "Carnegie Andrew" to "Casus Belli" by Various