Review of 'A World for Us: the Case for Phenomenalistic Idealism.' by John Foster: (Oxford UP, 2008. Pp. 261. Price £35.00.)

Abstract

One of the scandals of philosophy is the tyranny of fashion. Idealism, once so popular, is now largely ignored. Thank God, then, for those such as Foster who show us that far from being refuted, it can be argued for with at least as much cogency as other metaphysical theses which are taken much more seriously. Here John Foster builds on his 1982 book 'The Case for Idealism', presenting that case in a more accessible form, and reaching a slightly different conclusion. This new book is still quite hard work but well worth the effort. He clarifies his own position, which he calls 'canonical idealism', presents three arguments for it, and defends the objectivity of the external world in the context of his idealism. Canonical idealism is a species of 'phenomenalistic idealism', the thesis that the physical world is constituted by experiential facts. Canonical idealism further describes these experiential facts as facts about the 'content' of sensory experience. In addition, Foster argues that the physical world is objective because God ensures that human experience is suitably organized.