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idealism/idealist
In political thought, idealism is understood in two
ways: (1) the common or colloquial meaning in which
someone is idealistic, and (2) the ideas of 19- and
20th-century idealist philosophers KANT, HEGEL, FICHTE,
and T. H. GREEN.
The common political meaning of idealisminvolves
a person or a movement that has ideals or goals that
are supposedly attainable through positive social
reform. In this sense, Thomas JEFFERSONis often called
an idealist because he believed in the ideals of EQUAL-
ITY, human dignity, PROGRESS, DEMOCRACY, FREEDOM, and
so on and he believed that those positive ideals were
attainable in the MODERNU.S. REPUBLIC. So, an idealistic
person believes that people and societies are capable of
improving and achieving noble ends; opposed is the
pessimist or realist who doubts that humankind can
ever improve or become more humane, generous, just,
and so on. Among idealistic movements, we might
include SOCIALISM(which believes greed and poverty
can be eliminated through state economic planning
and redistribution of wealth); ENVIRONMENTALISM
(which focuses on the care and nonexploitation of
nature); and ANIMAL RIGHTS(where people will stop
eating and using other creatures). Most of these social
movements are LIBERAL, so liberal idealism is a logical

combination of terms. CONSERVATIVEthinkers (such as

Edmund BURKE, St. AUGUSTINE, Ronald REAGAN) chal-

lenge idealism on two levels: (1) they see inherent lim-

its to human capacities for goodness (through sin,

historical culture, ignorance) that makes idealism an

inaccurate, naïve view of humanity; and (2) those

human limitations show themselves in idealists

through their pride, self-righteousness, and intoler-

ance. Thus, idealists are often frustrated by the world

and their pessimistic critics. They see the nonachieve-

ment of their ideas as caused by pessimism and con-

servatism rather than their own unrealistic worldview.

Idealism is strong in the ENLIGHTENMENT, Jean-

Jacques ROUSSEAU, Karl MARX, and FEMINISM. The United

States is famous for its optimistic idealism, especially

regarding patriotism, DEMOCRACY, and equality, as

Alexis de TOCQUEVILLEnoted in Democracy in America.

The second meaning of idealism is a formal philo-

sophical school that locates reality in ideas, or the per-

ceptions and conceptions of the human mind. For

Kant, the external empirical world is ordered and sys-

tematized by the human brain, through categories of

time and space, causality, substance, and so on, which

do not occur in the natural objective universe. This

HUMANISTview rejects a divinely ordered NATURAL LAW

and so constructs order out of the human mind. So,

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