An Example of Mentalism

 

  The two concepts--唯心主义and唯物主义--are mentalism and materialism which are two doctrines in philosophy. The former means that mind is the true reality and that objects exist only as aspects of the mind's awareness. In contrast, the latter means that matter is the only reality.

  Maybe the mentalism is not very acceptable. To illustrate, now, suppose you are sitting alone in a room (suppose the room is the whole world) and there is a vase behind you and when you turn back, you can see the vase and when you turn round, you cannot see it, isn't it? You can say that because you have seen there is a vase, even if you cannot see it, the vase is still there. But the argumentation is not sufficient. And there is another perspective to explain the thing. I can suppose that only when you turn back and look, the vase is there and when you turn round and cannot see the place where the vase was put, the vase disappear. In other words, the vase appears just when you turn back and look the place where the vase was put. Please pay attention to the bold phrase in the last sentence. “Turn back and look the place where the vase was put” describes an action. And when you take this action, you can see a vase. Surely, you can also do other actions, for example, you do not need to turn back and when you put a mirror in front of you, you can also see the vase. You can take a lot of actions as possible as you can to see the vase. But now, you sit forward and you cannot see the vase. Only when you take some actions can you see the vase, isn’t? Therefore, I can make a principle for the world (the room). Only when one in this world (the room) take some proper actions, a vase appear in that place where you have seen a vase before. And when you do nothing or take some wrong actions, for example, looking the ceiling, the vase do not appear. My principle can also explain the thing, isn’t? But you may ask why the world (the room) should obey my principle and I am not the God. Yes, I must admit I have no right to create principles for the world. But in the meantime everyone should admit my principle is also a correct perspective to explain the thing. Actually, all the thing I explained to you just now is a kind of mentalism. Isn’t it mysterious?