Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Are all metaphysical views equally credible?	tonyrey	05/04/07
If not why not? How would you judge which view is the most credible: materialism, idealism or dualism?
Answered By		Answered On
captainoutrageous		05/05/07
According to metaphysical idealism, the external world consists of ideas that, being ideas, can exist only in the mind. According to this view, reality is thus mental or spiritual. The opposing philosophical view is called materialism. Materialists maintain that reality consists of physical objects alone and that it is governed by purely physical forces. Since the 1950's, many scientifically oriented philosophers have defended materialist positions in metaphysics. These philosophers uphold materialist positions independent of any political ideology or theory of social development. Initially, idealism strikes most people as absurd. The theory appears to deny what we all know, that the world of galaxies, mountains, trees, and skyscrapers exists. Berkeley answered the criticism directed at idealism by saying that he did not deny that the physical world exists or is real. Rahter his idealism was a theory about the nature of the physical world, not its existence. Berkeley claimed that physical objects are real but that they could not exist without God and other spirits. For Berkeley, in order for something to exist, it had to be perceived by some spirit.

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