Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

For idealism there is nothing other than the qualities that we experience as observers — in other words — there is no substance.

This view has several problems. Chief among them is that reality has a way of impinging itself upon us, and does not respond to our wishes. If there is no objective reality then where do all these illusions spring from? If we are just imagining reality then why can't it be changed in dramatic ways, just by force of will?

A similar problem is the existence of other people who seem to be having the same or similar illusions to ourselves. They too must be figments of imagination, but how is it that people so different from ourselves can be conceived? This seems to stretch the mind (the only existing mind, if we take idealism seriously) just too much!

A partial solution to this is to accept that other minds exist as well as our own. They are also having an illusion of reality. They can communicate with our mind (via our illusory voices) and hence the problem of very different people and people beyond our control and understanding is solved. The further problem however arises of how the same illusion that makes communication possible is shared. One solution to this is to say that God arranges things so that the illusions of all individual minds correlate exactly. Again this presents difficulties. If God puts an illusion of reality into everyone's minds then in a sense God forces reality upon us. In what way are individuals free to determine their own actions? Anything that I choose to do in terms of changing things

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