idealism

[ahy-dee-uh-liz-uhm]

noun

1. the cherishing or pursuit of high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc.

2. the practice of idealizing.

3. something idealized; an ideal representation.

4. 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.

5. Philosophy.

   1. 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.

   2. 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.

idealism

/ aɪˈdɪəˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. belief in or pursuance of ideals

2. the tendency to represent things in their ideal forms, rather than as they are

3. 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 ideas Compare materialism dualism

idealism

1. 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.

Other Word Forms

• idealistically adverb
• idealist noun
• idealistic adjective
• anti-idealism noun
• overidealism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of idealism¹

First recorded in 1790–1800; ideal + -ism, probably modeled on German Idealismus

Example Sentences

Reprehensible such people may be, but they are motivated by a kind of perverted idealism.

From Salon

It began as an unstable blend of wildly ambitious idealism, great-power cynicism and mind-numbing bureaucracy, and that combination has defined it ever since.

From Salon

Most often, we’ll find frustrated idealism just at the moment it starts to sour.

From Los Angeles Times

And, holding down the heart of the film with a gravity it probably doesn’t deserve, is Redford, running his techno-security squad with just the right balance of seen-it-all cynicism, idealism and swagger.

From Los Angeles Times

“They show both sides of it — the idealism and the difficulty to live up to those ideals,” Gleeson says.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• accomplishment 
• evolution 
• excellence 
• fulfillment 
• ideal 
• integrity 
• precision 
• purity 
• quality 
• superiority 
• supremacy 
• transcendence 
• virtue