Communication and Subjective Idealism

People see objects in their lives and know what they are from years of learning and living in society. Walking through their neighborhood they may see a house, a lawn, a car, a road, and so on, knowing what each of these things are from experience and living, on the basis that we learn the immaterial and understanding of an object based on its existence in the world. However, the philosophy of Subjective Idealism completely contrasts this orthodox belief, instead establishing that reality is entirely based on the individual minds that perceive it.

“It from bit symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom — at a very deep bottom, in most instances — an immaterial source and explanation; that what we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes-no questions and the registering of equipment-evoked responses,” conceptualized John Wheeler, a theoretical physicist.

“Bit” refers to the idea of our perceptions, whether it be the light from the sun, the temperature of the air, or the texture of a keyboard. On the other hand, “it” refers to the intangible explanation or rational part of it, as humans have given our perceptions an imaginary form conceptualizing these ideals. These perceived observations are then explained as a result of our innate human desire to know why and how, leading to the formation of abstract and imagined theories, beliefs, and rules. This organization and understanding of our perceptions and its relation to our rationality serves as the foundation for the philosophy of subjective idealism, propagated most notably by George Berkeley, an Irish philosopher from the 17th century.

Berkeley goes on to establish his foundations for the notions of immaterialism and subjective idealism through his sentiment of “esse est percipi” translating to “to be is to be perceived.”

Everything humanity has ever known has been propelled by the observation and following attempted explanations of it. Fundamental theories like the Laws of Thermodynamics or the Laws of Motion were built from observation and experimentation, as humans have observed happenings and defined them. The interesting part of this concept is how language has tied all of these theories together. Observations unite our world by aspects of all five of our senses working together to interpret and reflect on phenomenon around the globe. Berkeley goes on to define an ideology based on the idea of these abstract and intangible observations defining our modern world, in his philosophy of subjective idealism.

Berkeley argues that when objects are given a theoretical understanding or mental representation, an assumption is made that this mental construct resembles or signifies the object it represents. However, he goes on to state that these ideas are nothing but constructions from other ideas, and are not truly representative of the object but only the ideas already established for it. As a result, the argument is made that these material objects aren’t referred to or encountered, but instead only the ideas that develop them.

To further develop his argument, Berkeley goes on to establish his view of the immaterial perspective on matter, or defined material substances that make up reality. A characteristic of this understanding of matter is the idea that it continues to exist whether a person perceives it or not, thus being existing without a conception of it. However, these conceptions are only built upon more ideas, in which case making it impossible for matter to be inconceivable. Thus, Berkeley concludes that the material definition of matter is impossible and indicates that only minds and their constructs exist.

Along with these principles of subjective idealism, Berkeley establishes the presence of an all-knowing and powerful god, capable of developing these ideas even when we haven’t established them ourselves. As a result, all human perceptions and ideas are first machined in the minds of a greater entity or God, and thus create the perceivable universe.

Built on the idea that nothing exists except the mind and its abstract ideas, subjective idealism references the idea of defining perceived phenomenon, as if it is entirely unobserved, does it really exist at all? Since the human mind defines the things that happen in the universe, subjective idealism rejects the idea of an objective reality, instead indicating that this reality depends entirely upon the minds that interpret it. Subjective idealism thus places a significant value on the concept of interpretation and definition, as the perceived phenomenon are then explained by intangible concepts built upon human knowledge. One such example that Berkeley utilizes to prove this point is Plato’s cave allegory.

Plato establishes a hypothetical in which people have been imprisoned in a cave from birth, stuck such that they are only looking straight ahead at a wall in front of them and incapable of looking anywhere else. Behind these people is a fire, surrounded by people. These people use this fire to project shadows of various objects, allowing the people in the cave to see the silhouettes on the walls of the cave. As a result, Socrates and Plato have established that these silhouettes are the only thing that these cavemen know, and thus are their reality. Stuck in this cave and incapable of observing anything else, these people lack the knowledge of the fire, the people around it, or that their whole life is just a boring puppet show. Berkeley uses this part of the hypothetical to establish the notion that material understandings of the world are heavily impacted by the personal and subjective perspectives of people.

Interpreting the universe is an entirely subjective concept, left up to the perspectives and mindsets of the people who understand it. This idea heavily emphasizes the personal identity and mindset that would accidentally or directly affect their understandings of things happening throughout their world. As a result, language has become extremely important, especially when put in perspective through this philosophy of subjective idealism. The human ability to reason has created every single concept that humanity has ever known as a result of putting systems and rules of words and language to concepts that exist in the real world. In a way, humanity has made sense of an immaterial world, by crafting fundamental and simple systems like the alphabet and grammar in order to build up to explaining the laws of quantum mechanics and space travel.

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