IDEALISM • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Idealism

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/aɪdˈilɪzəm/ Listen

noun

Idealism n.

The quality or state of being ideal.

Conception of the ideal; imagery.

(Philos.) The system or theory that denies the existence of material bodies, and teaches that we have no rational grounds to believe in the reality of anything but ideas and their relations.

The practice or habit of giving or attributing ideal form or character to things; treatment of things in art or literature according to ideal standards or patterns; opposed to realism.

A belief in the feasibility of the implementation of ideal principles and noble goals, and the practice or habit of pursuing such goals; opposed to realism and cynicism.

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Etymology of 'Idealism'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Idealism" Quotes from Famous Books

... in which Nekrassov began his literary career in St. Petersburg, the early forties of last century, was one of a great revival of idealism in Russia. The iron reaction of the then Emperor Nicholas I. made independent political activity an impossibility. But the horrible and degrading conditions of serfdom which existed at that time, ...

— Who Can Be Happy And Free In Russia? • Nicholas Nekrassov

... just. There was nothing ideal in the work. It was simply the representation of a naked woman doing what no woman could like to be seen doing. And a picture of a mere naked woman, however well executed, is never art if art means idealism. The realism of the thing was its offensiveness. Ideal nakedness may be divine,—the most godly of all human dreams of the superhuman. But a naked person is not divine at all. Ideal nudity needs no ...

— Kokoro - Japanese Inner Life Hints • Lafcadio Hearn

... Correspondence.—The "great awakening" of the time of Jonathan Edwards has been paralleled daring the last decade by a wave of idealism that has swept over the country, manifesting itself under several different aspects and under various names, but each having the common identity of spiritual demand. This movement, under the guise of Christian Science, and ingenuously calling ...

— Pulpit and Press (6th Edition) • Mary Baker Eddy

... wild animals impossible mental and moral standards. The student must not deceive himself by overestimating mental values. If an estimate must be made, make it under the mark of truth rather than above it. While avoiding the folly of idealism, we also must shun the ways of the narrow mind, and the eyes that refuse to see the truth. Wild animals are not superhuman demigods of wisdom; but neither are they idiots, unable to reason ...

— The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals • William T. Hornaday

... seem to have been painted. It comprises the great picture of "Pan," in the Berlin Gallery, the "Madonna," of the Uffizi Corridor, and the Munich Tondo. I have been tempted to give them a much earlier place, in the gap before the Perugia altar-piece, because they show so much of the idealism and idyllic spirit, which seem properly to belong to youth, but a careful comparison of them with that picture and the Loreto frescoes, reveals a greater maturity of technique which makes so early a placing not very probable. ...

— Luca Signorelli • Maud Cruttwell

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