Idealism

Definition of Idealism

The Canada social science dictionary [1] provides the following meaning of Idealism: A perspective that asserts the independent causal influence of intellectual ideas on social organization and culture. It is contrasted to materialism, which focuses on concrete aspects of social organization as causative of particular intellectual ideas and values. Max Weber can be said to have given an idealistic explanation of the growth of capitalism by linking it to the emergence of a ‘Protestant Ethic’. See: HISTORICAL MATERIALISM in this legal dictionary and in the world encyclopedia of law.

Idealism: Resources

Notes and References

• Drislane, R., & Parkinson, G. (2016). (Concept of) Idealism. Online dictionary of the social sciences. Open University of Canada

Grammar

This term is a noun.

Etimology of Idealism

(You may find idealism at the world legal encyclopedia and the etimology of more terms).

1796 in the abstract metaphysical sense “belief that reality is made up only of ideas,” from ideal (adj.) + -ism. Probably formed on model of French idéalisme. Meaning “tendency to represent things in an ideal form” is from 1829. Meaning “pursuit of the ideal, a striving after the perfect state” (of truth, purity, justice, etc.). In the philosophical sense the Germans have refined it into absolute (Hegel), subjective (Fichte), objective (von Schelling), and transcendental (Kant).