What Is Idealism?

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Emyser, bernardo: Idealism is a foundational topic in philosophy. You don't need to agree with the subtleties, but you need to know at least what the foundational claims are. No idealist denies that there is a objective world we all share. The dispute is solely about what physicality is. An idealist would say, physicality is the appearance of our sense organs. It's not the world as it is in itself.

In this expansive conversation, Michael Shermer speaks with Bernardo Kastrup, the executive director of Essentia Foundation. His work has been leading the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism, the notion that reality is essentially mental. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy (ontology, philosophy of mind) and another Ph.D. in computer engineering (reconfigurable computing, artificial intelligence). Shermer and Kastrup discuss: materialism, idealism, dualism, monism, panpsychism, free will, determinism, consciousness, the problem of other minds, artificial intelligence, out of body and near-death experiences, model dependent realism, and the ultimate nature of reality.