IDEALISM. This word is not easy, to define briefly, as it is used in many connections where the common element in the various sig. nifications it takes on are not at first sight apparent. We may say at once, however, that idealism is a fundamental attitude or point of view from which interpret the world, or some special phase of human experience. Its essential characteristic is found in the fact that it interprets the reality with which it deals as having a meaning, an idea, apart from its sensible appearance, and assumes that in this inner significance its truth and ultimate essence consists. Not the outward show of things, not the fact of coexistence and sequence among sensible phenomena, but the meaning or is for idealism the point of primary importance in understanding either the world as a whole, or any of its various parts. Now, as Plato perceived, this inner idea of anything is ulti mately identical with its higood? i.e., what it is good for, its purpose or function in a rational system of things. Accordingly, the essence of idealism is found in its teleological mode of explanation. This point of view, when logically carried out, implies further that what is real is rational or intelligible, since its idea can be grasped. That means, in other words, that mind or intelligence is the ultimate principle in which things find their explanation. More over, it of course follows that the material world with its mechanical laws is in some sense secondary and derivative. Idealism is thus & reedy opposed to materialism (q.v.) and rnechaniaszn, which takes matter or energy or some unintelligent form of existence as the peins from which everything else is derived. Realism, as a philosophical theory, affirming the existence of a reality apart from subjective experience, is not properly contrasted with idealism; though, as we shall see later, these terms are used to denote opposing tendencies in literature and art. It is, however, a mistake to suppose that idealism denies objective reality and reduces the world to sensations and ideas in the mind of the individual. On the contrary, the more adequately the principle of idealism is grasped, the more completely is justice done to the objective side of experience.
Science, including philosophy, religion, art and literature, are all different ways of inter preting life and existence, involving, indeed, varying attitudes of the self toward reality, an varying degrees of explicitness. Religion, art and literature differ from science and philoso phy in not being reasoned interpretations of reality, but primarily expressions of the emo tional or feeling aspects of experience. Yet the various sides of experience are not independent and isolated, btit act and react on one another as parts of a functional unity. Consequently, the interpretations of religion, art and litera ture presuppose more or less explicit theories about the nature of things. These, however,
exist in the form of unexamined assumptions and uncritical standards of value. With regard to these interpretations, we tan at once say that all forms of religion which rise above mere fetichism necessarily presuppose an idealistic view of the world. This is obviously true of a religion like Christianity. But even if a re ligion• denies individual immortality and the doctrine of a personal God, it cannot exist without assuming that the universe is to some extent governed by the ideas and purposes of a superhuman power (or plurality of powers), and that it is not therefore a mere play of mechanical phenomena. Art and literature, too, arc naturally—at least in their highest forms —affiliated with idealism. For the emotional and aesthetic satisfaction at which they aim can be fully attained only on the assumption that the ultimate nature of things is in har mony with the demands of the human spirit, pnd that therefore these ideals ate not vain illusions. There are, however, two causes which at certain periods bring about a reac tion against idealism in these fields and give rise to what is known as realistic art and realistic literature. In the first place, the con ceptions of science and philosophy are at cer tain periods so prevailingly mechanical and naturalistic as to i fetter the wings of imagina tion and render impossible any idealistic inter pretation on the part of art and literature. If the world is demonstrably unmeaning and me chanical, there is, no permanent artistic satis faction in a false idealism, The imagination cannot be divorced from reason, but must find its satisfaction in repreSenting things in har their true nature and known laws of action. But, again, realism in art and litera= tare may be the result of a one-sided idealism, which, by ignoring the aspect of things that science emphasizes, gives rise to the same di vorce between the truth of fact and the truth of art. It is clear that if idealism is to prevail in these fields it must not ignore the facts and laws of the natural world, or run counter to them, but must do justice to these facts while its transcends, through its interpretations, the scientific standpoint. Mete idealistn then, is an unsatisfactory standpoint in art and Merit tare, and the reaction toward- realism to which it gives rise is justifiable and necessary. In a somewhat similar sense, is used point/ lady as a term of reproach to denote a person who ignores the facts and practical condit7ons. of any situation, construing it in a one-sided way in terms! of his own ideas of what ought to be. But idealism, to be adequate, must go beyond the uncritical ideas of , the individual. The true idealist is the man whose ideas arc adequate to the situation in all its complexity and concreteness, whose interpretation of what is and ought to be is derived from a penetrat ing analysis of all the objective conditions.