Dualism is the philosophical exposition of the nature of things by the hypothesis of two dissimilar primitive principles not derived from each other. Dualism in religion is chiefly confined to the adoption of a belief in two fundamental beings, a good and an evil one, as is done in some oriental religions, especially that of Zoroaster.
In metaphysics, dualism is the doctrine of those who maintain the existence of spirit and matter as distinct substances, in opposition to idealism, which maintains we have no knowledge or assurance of the existence of anything but our own ideas or sensations. Dualism may correspond with realism in maintaining that our ideas of things are true transcripts of the originals, or rather of the qualities inherent in them, the spirit acting as a mirror and reflecting their true images; or it may hold that, although produced by outward objects, we have no assurance that in reality these at all correspond to our ideas of them, or even that they produce the same idea in two different minds. Research Dualism
Idealism is the system or theory of philosophy that denies the existence of material bodies, and teaches that we have no rational grounds to believe in the reality of anything but ideas and their relations. Idealism is in contradistinction to realism, In relatively modern times idealism has been maintained by Descartes, Berkeley, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. Some of these, as Descartes and Kant, are not, however, pure idealists, inasmuch as they allow at least a problematical existence to sensible things independent of the thinking subject.
Berkeley is perhaps one of the most thorough-going idealists, holding that what is called matter consists merely of ideas, that is, appearances produced in the mind by the direct influence of the Deity. This dogmatic idealism of Berkeley differs from the critical or transcendental idealism of Kant. This consists in the doctrine that all the material of experience is given in sensation, but on the other hand the forms of the experience (space, time, and the categories of the understanding) arise in ourselves a priori, and that accordingly sensible objects are known only as they appear to us and not as they are in themselves.
Pichte, on the other hand, rejected the notion of things in themselves as untenable and self-contradictory, and created the system of so-called subjective idealism, according to which the I or thinking subject produces the appearance of a sensible world by a mode of activity grounded upon its essential nature. The theories of Schelliug and Hegel are developments of the Pichtean doctrine. Research Idealism
Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was born in 1762 at Rommenau and died in 1814. Despite being born of poor parents, he was educated at Jena University, Leipzig and Wittenberg. He spent several years as a private tutor in Switzerland and in Prussia Proper, and in Konigsberg made the acquaintance of the great Kant, who showed some appreciation of his talents. His Versuch einer Kritik aller Offenbarung (Essay towards a Criticism of all Revelation, 1792) attracted general attention, and procured him the professorship of philosophy in Jena in 1793.
In 1800 he was ono of the most prominent professors of Jena university during its most brilliant period. Here he published, under the name of Wissenschaftalehre (Theory of Science), a philosophical system, which, though founded on Kant's system, gives the latter a highly idealistic development which was strongly repudiated by the Konigsberg philosopher. On account of an article he had written to the Philosophical Journal (on the grounds of our belief in the divine government of the world) he fell under the suspicion of atheistical views. This gave rise to an inquiry, which ended in Johann Fichte losing his chair. He then went to Prussia, where he was appointed in 1805 professor of philosophy at Erlangen.
During the war between Prussia and France he went to Konigsberg, where he delivered lectures for a short time, returned to Berlin after the Peace of Tilsit, and in 1810, on the establishment of the university in that city, was appointed rector and professor of philosophy. Fichte's philosophy, though there are two distinct periods to be distinguished in it, is a consistent idealism, representing all that the individual perceives as distinct from himself, the ego, as a creation of this I or ego. This ego, however, is not the consciousness of the individual so much as the divine or universal consciousness of which the other is but a part. His philosophy thus came to assume a strongly moral and religious character. Amongst his best-known works, besides those already mentioned, are: System der Sittenlehre (Systematic Ethics), Die Bestimmung des Menschen (The Destination of Man), Das Wesen des Gelehrten (The Nature of the Scholar), Grundzuge des Gegenwartigen Zeitalters (Characteristics of the Present Age), Reden an die Deutsche Nation (Addresses to the German Nation). Research Johann Fichte
Victor Cousin was a French educationalist and philosopher. He was born in 1792, and died in 1867. He was educated at the Ecole Normale, University of Paris. Cousin was appointed lecturer at the University of Paris in 1815 and was made director of the Ecole Normale in 1830, the year he became a councillor of state and a peer of France. In 1840 he became minister of public instruction in the French cabinet; under his influence the French system of primary education was reorganised, philosophical freedom was encouraged in the university, and the study of the history of philosophy was introduced into academic curricula.
Victor Cousin is regarded as the founder of the modern philosophical school of eclecticism. Believing that no single philosophical system is entirely correct, Victor Cousin combined aspects of idealism, materialism, mysticism, and scepticism into an eclectic system of his own. He was particularly influenced by the philosophy of common sense of the Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid and by the idealism of the German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel. Research Victor Cousin
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