idealism

First attested 1796, from ideal +‎ -ism.

idealism (countable and uncountable, plural idealisms)

1. The property of a person of having high ideals that are usually unrealizable or at odds with practical life.
2. 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.[1]
3. (philosophy) An approach to philosophical enquiry, which asserts that direct and immediate knowledge can only be had of ideas or mental pictures.

• (philosophy): philosophical idealism

• (philosophy): materialism

• epistemological idealism
• metaphysical idealism

• idealist
• idealistic
• idealistically
• perfectionism

• realism
• pragmatism
• materialism
• physicalism

• idealism in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• idealism in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• "idealism" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 152.

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