Q&A: Ontological Parsimony (Idealism)
Ontological Parsimony (Idealism)
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Why don’t you adopt the idealist approach (from the school of Berkeley, Kastrup, and the like) for understanding reality? Seemingly there is no reason at all to think that objects exist outside consciousness, since everything we experience, we experience through consciousness. Moreover, our consciousness in dreams is evidence that consciousness can generate a sense of actual reality.
Shouldn’t the method striving for parsimony, which you adopt in everything touching on theology, also guide us in ontology?
Thank you
Answer
If I understand that what I see exists, then as far as I’m concerned it exists unless proven otherwise. Parsimony applies to unnecessary things, not to things that seem reasonable to me. The dream is evidence to the contrary, since while dreaming we all feel that it is imaginary.
Discussion on Answer
I agree with "Student." During the dream itself, I also feel that it is absolute reality.
A. The dispute is not about whether the thing exists, but about the space in which it exists. An idealist does not believe that the world does not exist or that it is an illusion; he simply thinks that the world exists within consciousness and not outside it. There is no “outside” space in which things exist in themselves.
Seemingly, the belief that things exist “outside” is an unnecessary belief. If so, why should we continue to hold that belief?
B. On the contrary. In a dream, people feel that this is the “real” reality.