This document compares and contrasts idealism and realism. It discusses: 1) Idealism, established by Plato, asserts that matter does not exist and reality consists exclusively of ideas constructed by the human mind. 2) Realism, established by Aristotle, claims that objects outside the mind have independent existence regardless of human perception. 3) The document argues against idealism by claiming that if an idealist philosopher was falling from a plane without a parachute fastened, they would have to acknowledge physical reality to survive, and that Darwin's theory of evolution shows reality existed before the human mind evolved to contemplate it.

1. Idealism
vs
Realism
By
K.Gautham Reddy
2011A8PS364g

2. Idealism
• First established by Plato
• Matter doesn’t exist
• External world-Construction of mind
• Reality consists exclusively of “ideas”
• Reality is due to the sensory abilities of the human mind and
not because reality exists in itself
• Rejects the idea that objects are independent of our minds.

3. Realism
• Established by Aristotle
• Claims
Objects outside mind have existence
Objects outside mind are independent
Items exist regardless of human perception and their existence
does not depend on human perception

4. Realism
• Physical World alone is Objective
• Knowledge acquired through senses only is real
• Universe is independent of ideas
• Things exist whether or not the human mind perceives them.

5. CLAIM
•Concept of Idealism doesn’t exist
and realism does.

6. ARGUMENTS AGAINST
IDEALISM
• Idealists are of the opinion that the world, and everything in
it, is but a creation of our minds and there is no objective
reality.
• Imagine an idealist philosophers in an aeroplane at a certain
altitude and the philosophers is ejected from the plane. They
are wearing a parachute, but it is not fastened. They must
decide if they wish to fasten themselves to the parachute or
not . This eliminates idealist philosophers / philosophy- they
either fasten the parachute and thus acknowledge the truth of
physical reality - or they do not and fall to their death

7. ARGUMENTS AGAINST IDEALISM
• What if a tree falls deep in the forest and there is no one to
see or hear it? Has the tree then fallen? Or does it merely
appear to us as fallen once we observe its predicament in
relation to our own spatiotemporal reality? For an idealist, the
tree doesn't exist as he has not observed it, the fact of its
falling is beyond the realm of his mental cognition and
therefore has not occurred. Yet we know this to be untrue.
• Observation is not the sole determinant of actuality and this is
what realism offers, the independence of a material world
removed from mental thought.

8. Main argument against Idealism
• Possibly the best argument against idealism is Darwin's Theory
of Evolution. It makes it very clear that reality existed in form
and matter much before the mind of man evolved to an extent
where it could hypothesize about the nature of the world. It is
an absolute refutation of the principles of idealism as they
stand.