| a doctrine that the world has no existence independent of sensations or ideas. |
| subjective idealism n. Philosophy The theory that nature has no objective existence independent of the minds that perceive it. |
subjective idealism
a philosophy based on the premise that nothing exists except minds and spirits and their perceptions or ideas. A person experiences material things, but their existence is not independent of the perceiving mind; material things are thus mere perceptions. The reality of the outside world is contingent on a knower. The 18th-century Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley succinctly formulated his fundamental proposition thus: Esse est percipi ("To be is to be perceived"). In its more extreme forms, subjective idealism tends toward solipsism, which holds that I alone exist.
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