Immaterialisten

Immaterialisten, or immaterialists, are philosophers who defend immaterialism, the view that reality is fundamentally mental or dependent on minds rather than consisting of mindless matter. In this view, material objects do not exist independently of perception, sensory experience, or a conscious or divine mind; what we call objects are arrangements of ideas, percepts, or sensations, whose apparent stability is guaranteed by mental or divine activity.

The best-known immaterialist is George Berkeley (1685–1753), who argued that to be is to be perceived. For Berkeley, sensible objects exist only as collections of sensations and would cease to exist outside of perception unless there were a divine mind that preserves them. This position is often called immaterialism or subjective idealism, and it contrasts with materialism and with substance dualism.

Historically, immaterialism emerged as a development of epistemology and philosophy of perception in early modern philosophy and influenced later idealist traditions. In modern usage, the term immaterialist is less common, though discussions about the primacy of perception, consciousness, and the role of mind in constituting reality continue in phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science.

Common objections focus on how immaterialism accounts for the apparent objectivity and intersubjective agreement of the external world, the persistence of objects when not perceived, and the success of science that presumes a mind-independent reality. Proponents respond with considerations about the limits of perception, the role of God or rational coherence, and alternative formulations of mind-dependent reality.