idealism (idea)

Historical note

Idealism is an ontological conception that originates from Plato, because he was the first to give the word idea a metaphysical meaning. Neoplatonism (cf. Plotinus) is also idealistic since the neoplatonistic One was conceived as a spirit of the other side. The philosophy of Christianity is also a type of idealism since Christian God is spiritual and it is conceived as a double causality (causa efficiens and causa finalis).

There are three basic forms of idealism in the history of philosophy:

• ontological / objective / absolute: Platonism (Plato), Neoplatonism (Plotinus), classic German idealism (Fichte, Schelling, Kant, Hegel)
• epistemological and theoretic / subjective: empiricism (Bacon), rationalism (Descartes), positivism (Comte)
• ethically practical idealism: the ethical stance that the purpose of moral behaviour should be an idea, not a material use.