Absolute Idealism is a ontologically monistic philosophy. Absolute idealism posits that only ideas exist. Fundamentally, all existing objects are "ideas", and there is only one perceiver of all ideas, taken by most idealist philosophers to be God or The Absolute. A major assertion of this school is that because only ideas exist, all things are fundamentally one with this mind or spirit, the basis of reality.

Religion

Absolute idealism has been a consistent favorite standpoint for religious thinkers and philosophers. It is present in the thinking of many important Christian theologians such as Meister Eckhart and is the basis of Advaita Hinduism and several forms of Buddhism, including Zen, Madhyamika, Yogacara, and some interpretations of Pure Land.

Criticism

Generally speaking, criticisms of absolute idealism come specifically from the standpoint of epistemology. Critics charge that absolute idealism has little or no grounding in reality and question the means by which philosophers come to their conclusions.

Major Idealists

• George Berkeley
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
• Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling
• Francis Herbert Bradley
• Nagarjuna
• Padmasambhava
• Meister Eckhart
• Paul Tillich

See also

• Emanationism
• Idealism
• Kant
• Rationalism
• Neutral Monism

Sources

• Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Garfield)
• Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (Blackburn)
• A History of Christian Thought (Tillich)
• From Socrates to Sartre (Lavine)