External world
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"It still remains a scandal to philosophy . . . that the existence of things outside of us ... must be accepted merely on faith, and that, if anyone thinks good to doubt their existence, we are unable to counter his doubts by any satisfactory proof." --Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1781) "I do not believe that any proof of the existence of external things is possible." --"Proof of an External World" (1939) by G. E. Moore “I shall, then, suppose hat not the optimal God – the font of truth –, but rather some malign genius – and the same one most highly powerful and most highly cunning –, has put all his industriousness therein that he might deceive me: I shall think that the heavens, the air, the earth, colours, figures, sounds and all external things are nothing other than the playful deceptions of dreams by means of which he has set traps for my credulity”--Première méditation by René Descartes |
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The external world is the world consisting of all the objects and events which are experienceable or whose existence is accepted by the human mind, but which exist independently of the mind.
Derived terms
See also
- Philosophical realism vs idealism
- Noumenon
- Phenomenal world
- Real world
- Evil demon
- "Proof of an External World" (1939) by G. E. Moore
- "Our Knowledge of the External World" (1914) by Bertrand Russell