The World is our Idea, The Idea is Our World

They say, the world is our idea. That is to say that it is a construct of our sensations and perceptions, and memory as well. This is the subjective view of the objective world. The world exists objectively on its own and subjectively as well, nothing comes into fray. But in absence of our perceptions and sensations, does it manifest simply because of its presence and existence? Its being to becoming is rather conditional, conditional in the sense that certain happenings and events in its very existence happen to be the brainwork of our perceptions and sensations. Otherwise, it remains dead as dodo in its very existence. Without our perceptions and cognitive faculty the world exists in way that it does not exist. This is like being-in-itself.

Our mind, on the other hand, remains as usual with or without the pre-existence of the world, remains active and sensitive as ever in our spatio-temporal world, 'more ghostly than a ghost'. But is that really so? If there is no world or no world of physical objects, can our mind exist at all? How will it exist without the world being perceived by it, without anything for its food for reflection? And our mind too cannot survive without its reflective food. This heavenly 'manna' is quintessential for its existence. As if, the world is our mind's one and only 'fodder' and our mind its one and only 'cannon' to burn the Promethean fire of knowledge. This 'canonical' message is very important in establishing the embedded relationship between the world and mind or for that matter the mind.

Mind and matter never exists in virtual duality, rather they both complete an integral whole. They are always comprehensively in elastic relationship with each other. Here, the Cartesian duality does not hold water. In the idealist worldview, this material or the physical world has just been constructed and construed in the mind's view, as it were it has been at the cost of taking the human self to a seventh heaven where only mind can dictate terms without giving a due credit to the world of matter. On the other hand, in Marx's materialist worldview, there had an unqualified preponderance over matter where matter enslaves mind and mind just plays second fiddle to matter. From both of these counts, it can be inferred that mind is out of the world, never a part of it or never with it and both are mutually exhaustive and both the epistemology subscribe to the duality principle of De'Cartes in one way or another.

Let us take a quick look at what Erwin Schrodinger has to say regarding mind and matter duality : "Mind has erected the objective outside world of the natural philosopher out of its own stuff. Mind could not cope with its gigantic task otherwise than by the simplifying device of excluding itself - withdrawing from its conceptual creation. Hence the latter does not contain its creator." He also said that the localization of the personality, of the conscious mind, inside the body is only symbolic and just for an aid and extension of practical use. So, as per Schrodinger's contention, mind cannot be left behind the body of the natural world so much so that mind is an integral component of the body-world.

Yes, the world is our mind and the mind is our world. In the ideas of the world, our mind is nourished and nurtured, and in the mind's vision and perception the world or for that matter, the matter-world gets life and is born and reborn in this world. Otherwise, it remains dead camouflaged within itself, none and nothing to wake it or none and nothing to conceive its existence. And who is there or what is there to conceive our own existence? It is mind only what reminds us that we live in our ideas and the idea is our world. And whatever we do or think is a reflection of the world, the world that nourishes us both physically and epistemologically.