idealism
[ahy-dee-uh-liz-uh m]
- the cherishing or pursuit of high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc.
- the practice of idealizing.
- something idealized; an ideal representation.
- Fine Arts. treatment of subject matter in a work of art in which a mental conception of beauty or form is stressed, characterized usually by the selection of particular features of various models and their combination into a whole according to a standard of perfection.Compare naturalism(def 2), realism(def 3a).
- Philosophy.
- any system or theory that maintains that the real is of the nature of thought or that the object of external perception consists of ideas.
- the tendency to represent things in an ideal form, or as they might or should be rather than as they are, with emphasis on values.
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Origin of idealism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for idealism
Contemporary Examples
Both followed wars; people were tired of idealism and self-sacrifice and were determined to enjoy a self- indulgent materialism.
TR reinvigorated the office after a succession of grey presidents with his unself-conscious energy, idealism and determination.
From The Square Deal to The New Deal: The Overlapping Political Identities of TR and FDRJohn Avlon
September 9, 2014
For Moses, the idealism of Freedom Summer was inseparable from the practical task of making it work.
Today, we still believe that wisdom in politics above all counsels realism as to means and idealism as to ends.
When you confuse it with ethics or idealism, then you get into murky territory.
Historical Examples
All Americans have witnessed this idealism, and some for the first time.
Idealism was not very popular, he said, but thank God he was an idealist.
The Foolish LoversSt. John G. Ervine
From the very beginning, the American people have been characterized by idealism.
The American MindBliss Perry
But this romanticism is, as it were, a segment of the larger circle of idealism.
The American MindBliss Perry
The characteristic attitude of the American mind, as we have seen, is one of idealism.
The American MindBliss Perry
idealism
- belief in or pursuance of ideals
- the tendency to represent things in their ideal forms, rather than as they are
- any of a group of philosophical doctrines that share the monistic view that material objects and the external world do not exist in reality independently of the human mind but are variously creations of the mind or constructs of ideasCompare materialism (def. 2), dualism (def. 2)
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for idealism
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
idealism
An approach to philosophy that regards mind, spirit, or ideas as the most fundamental kinds of reality, or at least as governing our experience of the ordinary objects in the world. Idealism is opposed to materialism, naturalism, and realism. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was an idealist; so was Immanuel Kant.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.