Traditional idealism

1, meaning: advocate that material is the origin of the world, material first, spirit second.

2. Three historical forms:

(1), ancient naive materialism

It is the primitive form of materialist philosophy. Naive materialism affirms the material origin and unity of the world, but due to the limitation of the level of understanding, one or a specific material form is always regarded as the material basis of the material origin and unity of the world.

For example, Thales in ancient Greece believed that everything was born and returned to water, and China's ancient Five Elements Theory believed that gold, wood, water, fire and earth were the five basic elements of everything. The atomism of democritus and Epicurus in Europe and the monism of Qi in ancient China all belong to the category of simple materialism.

(2) Modern metaphysical materialism

It is the second form of materialist philosophy, also called mechanical materialism.

The basic feature of metaphysical materialism is that it recognizes the materiality of the world, but interprets the world from an isolated, static and one-sided point of view, and fails to see the universal connection and development between things and phenomena in the world, or only recognizes the mechanical connection and mechanical movement, and observes and explains the way of thinking of the world from an isolated, static and mechanical point of view, thus showing mechanical and metaphysical characteristics.

Another limitation of metaphysical materialism is its incompleteness, which is mainly manifested in its materialism on nature and idealism on social history.

Mechanical materialism shows the following three limitations. First, machinery. Second, metaphysics. Third, historical idealism.

(3) dialectical materialism

Marxist dialectical materialism and historical materialism are the most thorough and scientific forms in the development of materialism and the third form in the history of materialism. Dialectical materialism and historical materialism overcome the limitations and incompleteness of metaphysical materialism, organically unify materialism and dialectics, materialist view of nature and materialist view of history, and form a very complete and rigorous scientific theoretical system. Practical materialism attaches importance to both theoretical explanation of the world and practical transformation of the world. This is the highest form of materialist philosophy development so far, and it is the most scientific and revolutionary philosophical form.

(2) idealism

1, meaning: idealism is an ideological system opposite to materialism. It holds that spirit is primary, matter is secondary, and consciousness determines matter, not matter determines consciousness.

2, two main forms:

(1) subjective idealism

Subjective idealism holds that the world is the product of people's subjective consciousness and the spirit is the origin of the material world. In epistemology, idealism advocates that human knowledge is innate or that human mind is subjectively self-generated, and denies that knowledge comes from practice and the external material world. In the view of social history, it regards human history as the embodiment of some innate principles and principles, or the product of the will of outstanding people, regards spirit, will and motivation as the decisive force of historical development, denies that the production of material means of production and its subject (laborers) are the creators of history, and advocates the view of "genius" history.

There are many famous representatives of subjective idealism in the history of philosophy, such as: (1) Wang Shouren of China in the Ming Dynasty, who put forward that "there is nothing outside the heart, nothing outside the heart, and unreasonable outside the heart". (2) In Europe18th century, British Becker put forward the following viewpoints: "Things are a collection of ideas", "Being is perceived" and "Objects and feelings are one thing".

(2) objective idealism

Like subjective idealism, objective idealism holds that spirit is the source of the material world. The only difference is that it thinks that the world is not the product of one's subjective consciousness, but the product of some mysterious and "objective" spirit that exists somewhere in the world.

There are many famous representatives of objective idealism in the history of philosophy, such as (1) China Zhu in the Southern Song Dynasty, who advocated that spiritual "reason" was an independent entity before heaven and earth. "There is no heaven and earth, after all, that's just the reason. There is this reason, there is this world; If there is no such thing, there is no heaven and earth, no one, nothing. " (2) Plato in Europe and ancient Greece believed that "idea" was the only real existence, and all kinds of concrete things were just the shadow of "idea" and were derived from it. (3) Leibniz of modern Germany believes that "list" (a spiritual entity) is the foundation of all things in the world, and the list has different levels, which determines the nature and difference of different things. (4) Hegel, Germany, who put forward that "absolute concept" ("absolute spirit") is the essence of the world, and both nature and human society are the products and manifestations of the movement and development of "absolute concept" itself.

To sum up a few words simply, the connection lies in that they have solved the most fundamental basic problems of philosophy from different angles, and they are all self-certified attempts of human wisdom to lead to truth. The differences focus on the decisive understanding of constructing the traditional philosophical framework from different angles. There is no necessary difference between the two, and they both appear in philosophical discourse as a later philosophical classification.