Idealism

In discussing this term and its meaning, reference must be had to the cognate

expressions, idealist, idealized, ideal (adjective), and the ideal (noun), all of

which are derived from the Greek idéa. This signifies "image", "figure, "form": it

can be used in the sense of "likeness", or "copy" as well as in that of "type",

"model", or "pattern": it is this latter sense that finds expression in "ideal", and

"the ideal" and the derivatives are mentioned above. In speaking of "the ideal",

what we have in mind is not a copy of any perceptible object, but a type. The

artist is said to "idealize" his subject when he represents it as a fairer, nobler,

more perfect than it is in reality.

Idealism in life is the characteristic of those who regard the ideas of truth and

right, goodness and beauty, as standards and directive forces. This signification

betrays the influence of Plato, who made idea a technical term in philosophy.

According to him the visible world is simply a copy of a supersensible,

intelligible, ideal world, and consequently "things" are but the impress stamped

on reality by that which is of a higher, spiritual nature.

Platonism is the oldest form of idealism, and Plato himself the progenitor of

idealists. It is usual to place in contrast Plato's idealism and Aristotle's realism;

the latter in fact denies that ideas are originals and that things are mere copies;

he holds that the essence is intelligible, but that it is immanent in the things of

nature, whereas it is put into the products of art. It is more correct, therefore, to

call his teaching an immanent idealism as contrasted with the transcendental

idealism of Plato. Both these thinkers reveal the decisive influence of that moral

and aesthetic idealism which permeated Greek life, thought, and action; but for

both, what lies deepest down in their philosophy is the conviction that the first

and highest principle of all things is the one perfect spiritual Being which they

call God, and to which they lead back, by means of intermediate

principles--essence and form, purpose and law--the multifarious individual beings

of the visible world. In this sense idealism is dualism, i.e. the doctrine of a higher

spiritual principle over against that which is lower and material; and this doctrine

again is clearly opposed to the monism which would derive the higher and the

lower alike out of one and the same All-being. This older idealism teaches, not

that there is One-All, but that there is an alpha and omega, i.e. a supermundane

Cause and End, of the world. By means of its principles, idealism maintains the

distinctness of God and the world, of the absolute and finite, yet holds them

together in unity; it adjusts the relations between reality and knowledge, by

ascribing to things dimension, form, purpose, value, law, at the same time

securing forethought the requisite certainty and validity; it establishes objective

truth in the things that are known and subjective truth in the mind that knows

them. In this sense the Schoolmen teach that forma dat esse et distingui, i.e.

the principle which formally constitutes the object, likewise, in the act of

cognition, informs the mind. Inasmuch as its principles express the cause and

purpose of things, their determinate nature and value, idealism unites the

speculative and the ethical, the true and the good, moral philosophy and the

philosophy of nature.

In this sense St. Augustine developed the Platonic teaching, and in his

philosophy is idealism in the genuine meaning of the term. From him comes the

definition of ideas which Christian philosophy has since retained: "Ideas are

certain original forms of things, their archetypes, permanent and

incommunicable, which are contained in the Divine intelligence. And though they

neither begin to be nor cease, yet upon them are patterned the manifold things of

the world that come into being and pass away. Upon these ideas only the

rational sole can fix its gaze, endowed as it is with the faculty which is its

peculiar excellence, i.e. mind and reason [mente ac ratione], a power, as it were,

of intellectual vision; and for such intuition that sole only is qualified which is pure

and holy, i.e., whose eye is normal, clear, and well adjusted to the things which

it would fain behold" (De diversis quaest., Q. xlvi, in P.L., XL, 30).

This line of thought the Scholastics adopted, developing it in their treatises as

ideology. Their theory is described not as idealism, but as realism; but this does

not imply that they are in conflict with the doctrine of Augustine; it means rather

that the ideal principles possess real validity, that as ideas they subsist in the

Divine mind before the things corresponding to them are called into existence,

while, as forms and essences, they really exist in nature and are not really

products of our thinking. In this last-named sense, i.e., as subjective

constructions, ideas had long before been regarded by the philosophers of

antiquity and especially by the Stoics, who held that ideas are nothing else than

mental representation. This erroneous and misleading view appeared during the

Middle Ages in the guise of nominalism, a designation given to the system

whose adherents claimed that our concepts are mere names (nomina), which

have as their counterparts in the world of reality individual things, but not forms or

essences or purposes. This opinion, which robs both science and moral

principles of their universal validity, and which paves the way for Materialism and

agnosticism, was combated by the leaders of Scholasticism--Anselm of

Canterbury, Albertus Mangus, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, and Duns

Scotus--nevertheless, from the fourteenth century onwards, it had its champions

and propagators, notably William of Occam. For the untrained mind it was easier

to consider individual things as the only realities and to regard forms and

essences as purely mental products.

So it came to pass that the word idea in various languages took on more and

more the meaning of "representation", "mental image", and the like. Hence too,

there was gradually introduced the terminology which we find in the writings of

Berkeley, and according to which idealism is the doctrine that ascribes reality to

our ideas, i.e. our representations, but denies the reality of the physical world.

This sort of idealism is just the reverse of that which was held by the

philosophers of antiquity and their Christian successors; it does away with the

reality of ideal principles by confining them exclusively to the thinking subject; it

is a spurious idealism which deserves rather the name "phenomenalism"

(phenomenon, "appearance", as opposed to noumenon, "the object of thought").

The doctrine of Descartes has also per nefas been called idealism. It is true that

Cartesianism is in line with the genuine idealism of the earlier schools, inasmuch

as it postulates God, thought, and spatial reality. But, on the other hand, this

system too employs idea only in a subjective signification and quite overlooks

the intermediate position of ideal principles. According to the theory of Leibniz,

which has also been regarded as idealistic, our mind constructs from its own

resources (de son propre fond) its scheme of the world; but , thanks to a

pre-established harmony (harmonie préétablie), it accords with reality. This view,

however, furnishes no solution for the epistemological problem. Kant claims that

his critical philosophy is both a "transcendental idealism" and an "empirical

realism"; but he declares ideas are "illusions of reason", and such ideal

principles as cause and purpose are simply devices of thought which can be

employed only in reference to phenomena. Fichte took Kant as his starting--point

but finally rose above the level of subjectivism and posited a principle of reality,

the absolute Ego. Hegel's doctrine can be termed idealism so far as it seeks the

highest principle in the absolute idea, which finds its self-realization in form,

concept, etc.--a view which amounts virtually to monism. The various offshoots of

Kantian philosophy are incorrectly regarded as developments of idealism; it is

more accurate to describe them as "illusionism" or "Solipsism", since they

entirely sweep away objective reality. In this connection a German philosopher

declares:

I affirm without hesitation that the assertion, 'the existence of the

world consists merely in our thinking', is for me the result of a

hypertrophy of the passion for knowledge. To this conclusion I have

been lead chiefly by the torture I endure in getting over 'idealism'.

Whosoever attempts to take this theory in downright earnest, to

force his way clean through it and identify himself with it, will

certainly feel that something is about to snap in his brain

(Jerusalem, "Die Urtheilsfunktion", Vienna, 1886, p.261).

Similar conclusions are reached by J. Volkelt (Erfahrung u. Denken, Hamburg,

1886, p. 519);

Any man who carries his theoretical doubts or denial of the

external world so far that even in his everyday experience he is

forever reminding himself of the purely subjective character of his

perceptions. . .will simply find himself flung out of the natural

course and direction of life, stripped of all normal feeling and

interest, and sooner or later confronted with the danger of losing his

mind completely.

It is certainly a matter of regret that the terms idea, idealist, and idealism,

originally so rich in content, should be so far degraded as to signify such

aberrations of thought. The present writer, in his "Geschichte des Idealismus"

(2nd ed., Brunswick, 1907) has taken the ground that the original meaning of

these terms should be restored to them. In the index of this "Geschichte" and in

his monograph, "Die Wichtigsten Philosophischen Fachausdrücke" (Munich,

1909), he traces in detail the changes and meaning which these words have

undergone.

Otto Willmann

Transcribed by Peter S. Zehr and Patrick C. Swain

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII

Nihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor

Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org