ideal 
< L. idea, idea: see idea.'] I. ft. 1. Of or per- 
taining to or consisting in ideas. 
The plays of children are endless imitation, and the 
constant exercise of the ideal faculty. 
J. F. Clarke, Self-Culture, p. 176. 
Even now few Americans set a proper value on the rela- 
tive bearing of our i<le<il and intellectual progress thus 
far. Steduuin, Poets of America, Int., p. ix. 
It will be understood that by an ideal object is meant 
an object present in idea but not yet given in reality. 
T. II. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, 229, note. 
2. Existing only in idea; confined to thought or 
imagination. Hence (a) Not real or practical ; ima- 
ginary ; visionary ; incapable of being realized or carried 
out in fact : as, ideal wealth or happiness ; an ideal scheme 
of benevolence. 
He [Spenser) lifts everything, not beyond recognition, 
but to an ideal distance where no mortal, I had almost 
said human, fleck is visible. 
Lowell, Among my Books, 2d ser., p. 186. 
(i>) Conforming completely to a standard of perfection ; 
perfect. 
There will always be a wide Interval between practical 
and ideal excellence. Rambler. 
Planning ideal commonwealths. Southey. 
All virtue, all duty, all activeness of the human charac- 
ter, are set out by him [Spenser], under the f onus of chiv- 
alry, for our instruction : but his ideal knight is Christian 
to the core. Gladstone, Might of Right, p. 21 1. 
3. In philos., regarding ideas as the only real 
entities ; pertaining to or of the nature of ideal- 
ism. 
The advantage of the ideal theory over the popular faith 
is this, that it presents the world in precisely that view 
which is most desirable to the mind. Emerson, Nature. 
4. Arising from ideas or conceptions ; based 
upon an ideal or ideals; manifesting or em- 
bodying imagination ; imaginative : as, the ideal 
school in art or literature; an ideal statue or 
portraitIdeal beauty. See beauty.- Ideal bitan- 
gent, a real line which touches a curve at two imaginary 
points. Ideal Chord, in geom., that part of a line not 
really cutting a conic which lies between two points, II and 
H', conjugate with respect to the conic and bisected: by the 
diameter through the pole of the line. Ideal diameter. 
See diameter. Ideal number, in the theory of complex 
numbers, a number not in the scheme of complex numbers 
considered in any investigation, but specially introduced 
as a factor of a number which is prime so far as the system 
of complex numbers considered is concerned. Ideal 
partition, in logic, a division of a whole into parts which 
can be sundered only in abstraction, not in reality ; meta- 
physical partition. Sir W. Hamilton. =Syn. 2. Imaginary, 
fanciful, shadowy, unreal, chimerical. 
II. )(. 1. That which exists only in idea; a 
conception that exceeds reality. 
A rigid solid ... is an ideal ; no substance is absolute- 
ly rigid. A. Daniell, Vila, of Physics, p. 199. 
2. An imaginary object or individual in which 
an idea is conceived to be completely realized; 
hence, a standard or model of perfection : as, 
the ideal of beauty, virtue, etc.; Bayard, the 
ideal of chivalry. 
While the idea gives rules, the ideal serves as the arche- 
type for the permanent determination of the copy ; and 
we have no other rule of our actions but the conduct of 
that divine man within us, with which we compare our- 
selves, and by which we judge and better ourselves, 
though we can never reach it. These ideal*, though they 
cannot claim objective reality, are not therefore to be 
considered as chimeras, but supply reason with an indis- 
pensable standard, because it requires the concept of that 
which is perfect of its kind, in order to estimate and mea- 
sure by it the degree and number of the defects in the 
imperfect. 
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, tr. by Max Miiller, II. 491. 
^Esthetic effects call up not merely ideas, but ideals. 
A great work of art improves upon the real in two re- 
spects : it intensifies and it transfigures. 
J. Ward, Encyc. Brit, XX 70. 
3. A standard of desire ; an ultimate object or 
aim ; a mental conception of what is most de- 
sirable: as, one's idea? of enjoyment; our ideals 
are seldom attained Beau ideal. See beau-ideal. 
=Syn. 2. Pattern, Model, etc. See example. 
idealess (i-de'a-les), a. [< idea + -less.] Des- 
titute of ideas. 
idealisation, idealise, etc. See idealization, 
idealise, etc. 
idealism (I-de'a-lizm), n. [= F. idealisine = 
Sp. Pg. It. ideatismo =: D. G. idealismus = Dan. 
idealisme = Sw. idealism, < LL. idealis, ideal: 
see ideal and -ism.] 1. The metaphysical doc- 
trine that the real is of the nature of thought ; 
the doctrine that all reality is in its nature 
psychical. 
It is our cognizance of the successiveness or transitori- 
ness of feelings that makes us object Intuitively to any 
idealism which is understood to imply an identification 
of the realities of the world with the feelings of men. 
T. H. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, 37. 
It is the very essence of the Kantian idealism that ob- 
jects are not there till they are thought. 
E. Caird, Philos. of Kant, p. 327. 
2. Pursuit of the ideal ; the act or practice of 
idealizing; especially, imaginative treatment 
of subjects ; a striving after ideal beauty, 
2974 
truth, justice, etc. 3. In art. the effort to 
realize the highest type of any natural object 
by eliminating all its imperfect elements and 
combining the perfect into a whole which rep- 
resents Nature, not as she is exhibited in any 
one example, but as she might be Absolute 
idealism, the doctrine of G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831), 
that things derive their reality from their being made 
by thought, which has an objective existence as a part 
of the divine absolute idea (this being the organic unity 
of all thought), and that things are not merely phenom- 
ena to us, but are of their inner nature phenomena or 
thoughts. The term is by English writers sometimes ap- 
plied to any dogmatic idealism, such as that of Berkeley. 
Berkeleian idealism, the doctrine of Bishop Berke- 
ley (1685-1753), that the souls of men and of God, ami the 
ideas in them, are the only existences, and that the real- 
ity of external things consists only in their permanence 
and coherency. Also called theixtic, phenomenal, and em- 
pirical idealism. Cosmothetic idealism, the doctrine 
that the external world exists, but that we have no im- 
mediate knowledge of it. Egotistical idealism, the 
doctrine that ideas are modes of the human mind itself, 
and are destitute of external prototypes. Fichteanor 
subjective idealism, the doctrine of J. G. Fichte(1762- 
1814X that the universal subject or ego (not the ego of an 
individual person) is the source of the object, the external 
world, or non-ego. Objective idealism, the doctrine of 
F. W. J. von Schelling (1775-1854), that the relation be- 
tween the subject and the object of thought is one of ab- 
solute identity. It supposes that all things exist In the 
absolute reason, that matter is extinct mind, and that the 
laws of physics are the same as those of mental represen- 
tations. Transcendental idealism, the doctrine of 1m- 
raanuel Kant (1724-1804X that the things to which the 
conceptions of reality, actuality, etc., are applicable are 
merely phenomena or appearances, and not thingit-in- 
themselecit, or things as they are apart from their relation 
to the thiuker. Thiugs-in-themselves are held to be ab- 
solutely unknowable. 
idealist (i-de'a-list), n. [= F. idealiste = Sp. 
Pg. It. idealis'ia = D. Dan. Sw. idealist, < LL. 
idealis, ideal: see ideal and -tet.] 1. One who 
holds some form of the philosophical doctrine 
of idealism : opposed to realist. 
All are idealists, to whom the world of sense and time 
is a delusion and snare, and who regard the Idea as the 
only substance. J. F. Clarke, Ten Great Religions, v. 3. 
2. One who pursues or dwells upon the ideal; 
a seeker after the highest beauty or good. 
3. An imaginative, unpractical person; a day- 
dreamer. Cosmothetic idealist, one who holds that 
we have no immediate intuition of a real non-ego or exter- 
nal world, but who nevertheless maintains that its exis- 
tence is known inferentially by its effects in sensation. The 
term was introduced by Sir W. Hamilton (Reid's Works, 
noteC). 
idealistic (I-de-a-lis'tik), a. [< idealist + -ic."] 
1. Relating or pertaining to the philosophical 
doctrine of idealism or to idealists. 2. Be- 
longing to an ideal or ideals ; striving for or 
imagining ideal perfection or good : as, ideal- 
istic poetry or art; idealistic dreams. 
ideality (i-de-al'i-ti), n. [= F. idcalite' = Sp. 
idealidad = ft. idealitd = G. idealitiit = Dan. Sw. 
idealitet, < ML. *idealita(t-)s, ideality, < LL. ide- 
!(*, ideal: see ideal und-ity."] 1. The condition 
or quality of being ideal: opposed to reality; 
in the Hegelian philos., existence only as an ele- 
ment, factor, or moment. 
The reality of a body is its separateness as an isolated 
object ; its ideality begins when its reality is abolished and 
it has become a moment or dynamic element in a larger 
unity. Wallace. 
2. The faculty or capacity of forming ideals. 
Thus we might expect to find, wherever the fancy, the 
imagination, and the ideality are strong, some traces of a 
sentiment innate in the human organization. 
S. F. Burton, El-Medinah, p. 325. 
3. That which is ideal or unreal. 
Sensuous certitude and the abstract classifications of 
science have put to flight the winged and mist-clad ideal- 
ities of philosophy. Jour. Spec. Phil., XIX. 34. 
Transcendental ideality, existence regarded as depen- 
dent upon the conditions of possible experience. 
We maintain the empirical reality of space, so far as 
every possible experience is concerned, but at the same 
time its transcendental ideality: that is to say, we main- 
tain that space is nothing, if we leave out of consideration 
the condition of a possible experience, and accept it as 
something on which things by themselves are in any way 
dependent. 
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, tr. by Max Muller, II. 25. 
idealization (i-de'a-li-za'shon), n. [= F. idea- 
lisation = Sp. idealization ; as idealise + -ation."] 
The act of forming in idea or in thought ; the 
act of making ideal. Also spelled idealisation. 
idealize (I-de'a-lIz), v. ; pret. and pp. idealized, 
ppr. idealising. [= F. idealiser = Sp. idealizar 
= Pg. idealisar = D. idealiseren = G. idealixircn 
= Dan. idealisere = Sw. idealisera; as ideal + 
-ize.~] I. trans. To make ideal; give form to in 
accordance with any preconceived ideal ; em- 
body in an ideal form: as, to idealize a por- 
trait. 
The kinship of pity to love is shown among other ways 
in this, that it idealizes its object. 
//. Spencer, Man vs. State, p. 18. 
idemfactor 
II. intrant. To form ideals. 
Also spelled idealise. 
idealizer (i-de'a-ll-zer), H. One who idealizes; 
an idealist. Also spelled idealiser. 
There is no idealizer like unavailing regret, all the more 
if it be a regret of fancy as much as of real feeling. 
Loicell, Among my Books, 2d ser., p. (7. 
ideally (I-de'al-i), adc. 1. In idea; in thought. 
Factors ideally separated from their combinations. 
a. Spencer, Study of Sociol., p. 321. 
Truth to nature can be reached ideally, never histori- 
cally. Lowell, Study Windows, p. 217. 
2. According to an ideal. 
idealogic (i-de-a-loj'ik), a. See ideologic. 
idealogue (i-de'a-log), n. See ideolo/jm . 
idealogy (i-de-al'o-ji), . See ideology. 
ideal-real (i-de'al-re'al), a. B6th ideal andreal; 
having the characteristics of ideal-realism. 
The half-and-half systems, the ideal-real, as they are 
called, held by so many in the present day in Germany, 
are in the position of a professedly neutral person between 
two hostile armies, exposed to the fire of both. 
New Princeton Her., I. 22. 
ideal-realism (I-de'al-re'al-izm), n. A meta- 
physical doctrine which combines the princi- 
ples of idealism and realism. The ideal-realism 
of Schleiermacher, Beneke, Trendelenburg, Ueberweg, 
Wundt, and others consists in acknowledging the correct- 
ness of Kant's account of the subjective origin of space, 
time, and the conceptions of cause, substance, and the 
like, and in holding, in addition, that these things have 
also an existence altogether independent of the mind. 
The ideal-realism of Ulrici, B. Peirce, and others consists 
in the opinion that nature and the mind have such a com- 
munity as to impart to our guesses a tendency toward the 
truth, while at the same time they require the confirma- 
tion of empirical science. 
ideate (i-de'at), r.; pret. and pp. ideated, ppr. 
ideating. [< idea + -ate 2 . Cf. equiv. Sp. Pg. 
idear = It. ideare.~\ I. trans. If. To form in 
idea or thought ; fancy. 
Letters mingle souls, 
For thus friends absent speak. . . . But for these 
I could ideate nothing which could please. 
Donne, To Sir Henry Wotton. 
2. To apprehend mentally so as to retain and 
be able to recall ; fix permanently in the mind. 
[Bare.] 
II. intrans. To form ideas; think. 
Feeling in general is ... the immediate consciousness 
of the rising or falling of one's power of ideating. 
0. T. Load, Physiol. Psychology, p. 503. 
ideate (I-de'at), a. and M. [< idea + -ate 1 ."] I. 
a. In metaph., produced by an idea, specifical- 
ly by a Platonic idea; existing by virtue of its 
participation in an idea. 
II. n. In metaph., the correlative or object of 
an idea ; the real or actual existence correlat- 
ing with an idea. G. H. Lewes. 
ideation (i-de-a'shon),w. [< ideate + -ion.'] The 
process or th'e act 'of forming ideas. 
There is in it [the will] an element of conception, idea- 
tion, or intellectual retentiveness. 
A. Bain, Emotions and Will, p. 352. 
ideational (i-de-a'shon-al), a. [< ideation + -a/.] 
Pertaining to the faculty of ideation, or to the 
exercise of this faculty; of or pertaining to the 
formation of ideas. 
What has never been presented could hardly be repre- 
sented, if the ideatiunal process were undisturbed: even 
in our dreams white negroes or round squares, for instance, 
never appear. J. Ward, Encyc. Brit., XX. 62. 
ideative (i-de'a-tiv), a. [< ideate +-ive.~] Same 
as ideational. 
The acoustic images, by awaking in the ideative field the 
correlated ideas, render the words spoken by another in- 
telligible. Alien, and Neural, (trans.), VIII. 215. 
idelt, a. An obsolete spelling of idle. 
idem (i'dem), adv. [L. idem, m., n., eadem, f., the 
same, < i-, a pronominal root in is, he, that, etc. 
(see /ic 1 ), + -dem, a demonstrative suffix; cf. 
ibidem. Hence identic, etc.] The same; the 
same as above or before : used to avoid repeat- 
ing something already written. Abbreviated id. 
idemfaciend (i-dem-fa'shiend), a. [< L. idem, 
the same, + fuciendus, ger. of facere, make, 
produce: see fact.'] Giving itself as product 
when multiplied by a certain basis. Thus, if i 
is the basis of a multiple algebra, and .;' is any 
other vid such that ij = j, then j is said to be 
idemfaciend. 
idemfacient(I-dem-fa'shient),. [<L.wteiH,the 
same, + facien(t-)s, ppr. "of facere, make, pro- 
duce : see fact."] Giving itself as product when 
multiplied into a certain basis. Thus, if i is the 
basis of a multiple algebra, and.;' is another vid 
such that ji =j, then,/ is said to be idemfaci* '. 
idemfactor (i-dem-fak'tor), . [< L. idem, the 
same, + factor, one who makes : see > factor."] A 
quantity or symbol which is at once idemf aeient 
and idemfaciend. 
