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

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

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

This “solipsism” is the ultimate logical issue of subjective idealism, and it is a sufficient reductio ad absurdum of the whole system.

From Ontology or the Theory of Being by Coffey, Peter