Problem of Idealism from "summary" of The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
The Problem of Idealism arises from the difficulty of reconciling the existence of physical objects with the fact that they are dependent on perception. Idealists argue that physical objects only exist insofar as they are perceived, while realists believe that physical objects have an independent existence regardless of whether they are perceived or not. Idealists maintain that the existence of physical objects is dependent on perception because physical objects are nothing more than collections of sense-data. According to this view, physical objects only exist when they are being perceived because they are made up of sensory experiences. When we perceive an object, what we are actually perceiving are our own sense-data. Realists, on the other hand, argue that physical objects have an independent existence outside of our perception. They believe that physical objects have properties that exist independently of how we perceive them. For example, a tree continues to exist even when we are not looking at it because it has properties such as size, shape, and color that exist independently of our perception. The Problem of Idealism arises from the difficulty of explaining how physical objects can have an independent existence outside of our perception while also being dependent on perception. Idealists struggle to account for how physical objects can continue to exist when they are not being perceived if they are nothing more than collections of sense-data. Realists, on the other hand, face the challenge of explaining how our perceptions of physical objects accurately reflect their independent existence.- The Problem of Idealism raises important questions about the nature of physical objects and their relationship to perception. Idealists and realists offer competing explanations for the existence of physical objects, but both struggle to provide a satisfactory account that reconciles the dependence of physical objects on perception with their independent existence.
