Ethical Idealism
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Ethical idealism, which is also referred to by terms such as moral idealism, principled idealism, and other expressions, is a philosophical framework based on holding onto specifically defined ideals in the context of facing various consequences to holding such
principle A principle may relate to a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of beliefs or behavior or a chain of reasoning. They provide a guide for behavior or evaluation. A principle can make values explicit, so t ...
s and/or
values In ethics and social sciences, value denotes the degree of importance of some thing or action, with the aim of determining which actions are best to do or what way is best to live ( normative ethics), or to describe the significance of different a ...
. Such ideals, which are analyzed during the process of ethical thinking, become applied in practice via a group of specific goals relative to what has been learned over time about
morality Morality () is the categorization of intentions, Decision-making, decisions and Social actions, actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principle ...
. As noted by philosopher Norbert Paulo, following ideals in a doctrinaire fashion will "exceed obligations" put on people such that actions "are warranted, but not strictly required." With certain philosophical movements throughout history emphasizing various types of moral idealism, such as influences being a part of
Christian ethics Christian ethics, also known as moral theology, is a multi-faceted ethical system. It is a Virtue ethics, virtue ethic, which focuses on building moral character, and a Deontological ethics, deontological ethic which emphasizes duty according ...
,
Jewish ethics Jewish ethics are the ethics of the Jewish religion or the Jewish people. A type of normative ethics, Jewish ethics may involve issues in Jewish law as well as non-legal issues, and may involve the convergence of Judaism and the Western phil ...
, and Platonist ethics, it relates to human
decision making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either ra ...
as differing alternatives get compared and contrasted. Advocates for ethical idealism, such as the philosopher
Nicholas Rescher Nicholas Rescher (; ; 15 July 1928 – 5 January 2024) was a German-born American philosopher, polymath, and author, who was a professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh from 1961. He was chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Sc ...
, have asserted that inherent mental concepts shared in terms of the
human condition The human condition can be defined as the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, reason, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered ...
among multiple peoples have a real, tangible nature due to their influences turning logical thinking into action, particularly by stimulating peoples' sense of
motivation Motivation is an mental state, internal state that propels individuals to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often understood as a force that explains why people or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a certain behavior at a particul ...
. In contrast, skeptical philosophers, such as
Richard Rorty Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher, historian of ideas, and public intellectual. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, Rorty's academic career included appointments as the Stu ...
, have argued that the complex course of
recorded history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world h ...
has shown that "to do the right thing is largely a matter of luck" and particularly is due to "being born in a certain place and a certain time." Debates and discussions held on not just ethical idealism specifically but on the general difficulty of defining goodness versus evilness in an intellectual fashion has become a "great divide in contemporary philosophy".


Definitions and general background

A range of different philosophical movements throughout history have emphasized moral idealism, with this including the doctrine influencing
Christian ethics Christian ethics, also known as moral theology, is a multi-faceted ethical system. It is a Virtue ethics, virtue ethic, which focuses on building moral character, and a Deontological ethics, deontological ethic which emphasizes duty according ...
,
Jewish ethics Jewish ethics are the ethics of the Jewish religion or the Jewish people. A type of normative ethics, Jewish ethics may involve issues in Jewish law as well as non-legal issues, and may involve the convergence of Judaism and the Western phil ...
, and Platonist ethics. This has occurred in the context of an underlying argument about
morality Morality () is the categorization of intentions, Decision-making, decisions and Social actions, actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principle ...
in which, as one scholar has put it, certain thinkers have postulated "an underlying sense of right and wrong that is common to all human beings at all times and places". Ongoing debates on whether or not these kinds of inherent mental concepts truly exist have been called a "great divide in contemporary philosophy". A framework in the
mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...
based on holding onto specifically defined ideals weighs them in the context of facing various consequences to holding such
principle A principle may relate to a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of beliefs or behavior or a chain of reasoning. They provide a guide for behavior or evaluation. A principle can make values explicit, so t ...
s and/or
values In ethics and social sciences, value denotes the degree of importance of some thing or action, with the aim of determining which actions are best to do or what way is best to live ( normative ethics), or to describe the significance of different a ...
. An ideal placed under intellectual analysis become applied in practice via a group of specific goals relative to what has been learned over time about moral thinking. As noted by
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n philosopher Norbert Paulo, following ideals in a doctrinaire fashion will "exceed obligations" put on people such that actions "are warranted, but not strictly required." American scholar
Nicholas Rescher Nicholas Rescher (; ; 15 July 1928 – 5 January 2024) was a German-born American philosopher, polymath, and author, who was a professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh from 1961. He was chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Sc ...
has stated that
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...
comes into play when analyzing such a philosophical viewpoint about human thinking given that nature of ideals gives them a particular status as "useful fictions", with this developing in terms of their special existence relative to the broader concept of ethical choice. He has described a worldview coming into focus via logical thinking based on moral idealism that he has defined in depth, remarking that "it srational to strive for the unattainable" and that a "practicality" exists in "seriously pursuing impossible dreams." He interpreted the
human condition The human condition can be defined as the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, reason, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered ...
shared among multiple groups as tied together in a real, tangible fashion due to their mutual influences that've resulted from idealistic ethics, particularly by such ideas stimulating peoples' sense of
motivation Motivation is an mental state, internal state that propels individuals to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often understood as a force that explains why people or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a certain behavior at a particul ...
. Writing in his book ''Ethical Idealism: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Function of Ideals'', Rescher specifically argued, Other thinkers have asserted that ideals as such constitute things that ought to be said to exist in the real world, having a substance partly to the same extent as human beings and similarly material-based entities. A prominent example of this philosophical take is the
ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
intellectual figure of
Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born  BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
. To him, ideals represented self-contained objects existing in their own domain that humanity discovered through
reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...
rather than invented out of whole cloth for narrow benefit. Thus, while existing in relation to the human mind, ideals still possessed a certain kind of metaphysical independence according to Plato. Labeled later on as an ethical idealist, given his large legacy, Plato saw these applied moral views as significantly influential on one's life course. With respect to how exactly human reason should work, American philosopher
Ralph Barton Perry Ralph Barton Perry (July 3, 1876 – January 22, 1957) was an American philosopher. He was a strident moral idealist who stated in 1909 that, to him, idealism meant "to interpret life consistently with ethical, scientific, and metaphysical truth ...
defined idealistic morality as being the result of a particular attitude about the act of attaining knowledge itself, writing in his book ''The Moral Economy'', In a keynote speech given in August 2005, American scholar
Richard Rorty Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher, historian of ideas, and public intellectual. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, Rorty's academic career included appointments as the Stu ...
remarked upon morally idealistic philosophy in the context of strictly specified principles through the lens of his views on
applied ethics Applied ethics is the practical aspect of morality, moral considerations. It is ethics with respect to real-world actions and their moral considerations in private and public life, the professions, health, technology, law, and leadership. For ex ...
, asserting to a group of business professionals, Rorty has argued that the complex course of recorded history has shown that "to do the right thing is largely a matter of luck", with standards of morality being far from broadly universal and instead coming fundamentally from "being born in a certain place and a certain time." He has highlighted the disconnect between intellectual abilities and other elements related to personal character, noting for instance the clarity of vision and rhetorical skill used by historical actors such as those inside of
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
. In Rorty's opinion, humanity as a whole has advanced at an ethical level due to gradual progress via both
technological change Technological change (TC) or technological development is the overall process of invention, innovation and diffusion of innovations, diffusion of technology or business process, processes.From ''The New Palgrave Dictionary otechnical change by S. ...
and social advancement, which reflects efforts at improving
civilization A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...
itself.


Historical evolution of moral idealism

German philosopher
Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...
's particular view of human nature and intellectual inquiry, later summed up as "
Kantianism Kantianism () is the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). The term ''Kantianism'' or ''Kantian'' is sometimes also used to describe contemporary positions in philosophy of m ...
", stressed the inherent power of logical thinking in terms of moral analysis. Kant's advocacy for the "
categorical imperative The categorical imperative () is the central philosophical concept in the deontological Kantian ethics, moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Introduced in Kant's 1785 ''Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals'', it is a way of evaluating motivati ...
", a doctrine through which every individual choice has to be made with the consideration of the decider that it ought to be a universally held maxim, took place in the broader context of his metaphysical views. In Kant's writings, defiance of higher principles was not only wrong in a practical sense but in a fundamentally rational and thus moral sense as well. All of that has resulted in Kant's intellectual framework being described as a philosophy of moral idealism by later scholars such as Nicholas Rescher. The latter thinker wrote that at a fundamental level Kant had understood that expressing an ideal meant applying "a regulative principle of reason" that commands one's mind to thus use logical thinking in painting a mental landscape "as if certain 'idealized' conditions could be realized". As a matter of working out intellectual concepts, Kant asserted the notion that "ought" implies "can", which as an argument has long attracted controversy and debate among philosophers. Works authored by Kant on these overall subjects include the initial publication '' The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals'' followed by '' The Critique of Practical Reason'', '' The Metaphysics of Morals'', '' Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View'', ''
Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason ''Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason'' () is a 1793 book by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Although its purpose and original intent has become a matter of some dispute, the book's immense and lasting influence on the history of the ...
'', with those latter commentaries developing the intellectual figure's thinking. Within the pages of ''Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View'' in particular, the philosopher articulated a vision of people as by their very essence driven by meaningful ethics. Through the lens of Kant's doctrine, no ironclad divide has existed between morality and the natural world, with empirical analysis of human psychology dovetailing with studies of people's ideals. The philosopher's metaphysics tied closely with his socio-political views and belief in fundamental advancement, such that Kant wrote inside of the pages of the ''
Critique of Pure Reason The ''Critique of Pure Reason'' (; 1781; second edition 1787) is a book by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, in which the author seeks to determine the limits and scope of metaphysics. Also referred to as Kant's "First Critique", it was foll ...
'' in detail, Evaluating Kant's method of turning ideal-based standards into a broader ethical framework in context, scholar Frederick P. Van De Pitte has written about the primacy of rationality to the philosopher, with Pitte remarking,


See also

*
Applied psychology Applied psychology is the use of psychological methods and findings of scientific psychology to solve practical problems of human and animal behavior and experience. Educational and organizational psychology, business management, law, health, pro ...
*
Idealism in international relations Idealism in the foreign policy context holds that a nation-state should make its internal political philosophy the goal of its conduct and rhetoric in international affairs. For example, an idealist might believe that ending poverty at home sho ...
**
Democratic peace theory Proponents of democratic peace theory argue that both electoral and republican forms of democracy are hesitant to engage in armed conflict with other identified democracies. Different advocates of this theory suggest that several factors ar ...
** Liberal international relations theory * Index of ethics articles **
Applied ethics Applied ethics is the practical aspect of morality, moral considerations. It is ethics with respect to real-world actions and their moral considerations in private and public life, the professions, health, technology, law, and leadership. For ex ...
**
Belief A belief is a subjective Attitude (psychology), attitude that something is truth, true or a State of affairs (philosophy), state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some Life stance, stance, take, or opinion ...
**
Critical thinking Critical thinking is the process of analyzing available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to make sound conclusions or informed choices. It involves recognizing underlying assumptions, providing justifications for ideas and actions, ...
**
Good and evil In philosophy, religion, and psychology, "good and evil" is a common dichotomy. In religions with Manichaeism, Manichaean and Abrahamic influence, evil is perceived as the dualistic cosmology, dualistic antagonistic opposite of good, in which ...
**
Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...
**
Morality Morality () is the categorization of intentions, Decision-making, decisions and Social actions, actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principle ...
** Philosophical value **
Principle A principle may relate to a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of beliefs or behavior or a chain of reasoning. They provide a guide for behavior or evaluation. A principle can make values explicit, so t ...
**
Virtue A virtue () is a trait of excellence, including traits that may be morality, moral, social, or intellectual. The cultivation and refinement of virtue is held to be the "good of humanity" and thus is Value (ethics), valued as an Telos, end purpos ...
* Legacy of Plato's philosophy * Personal character **
Compassion Compassion is a social feeling that motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental, or emotional pains of others and themselves. Compassion is sensitivity to the emotional aspects of the suffering of others. When based ...
**
Courage Courage (also called bravery, valour ( British and Commonwealth English), or valor (American English)) is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Valor is courage or bravery, especially in ...
**
Empathy Empathy is generally described as the ability to take on another person's perspective, to understand, feel, and possibly share and respond to their experience. There are more (sometimes conflicting) definitions of empathy that include but are ...
**
Determination Determination is a positive emotional feeling that promotes persevering towards a difficult goal in spite of obstacles. Determination occurs prior to goal attainment and serves to motivate behavior that will help achieve one's goal. Empirical ...
**
Faith Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, inc ...
**
Forgiveness Forgiveness, in a psychology, psychological sense, is the intentional and voluntary process by which one who may have felt initially wronged, victimized, harmed, or hurt goes through a process of changing feelings and attitude regarding a given ...
**
Generosity Generosity (also called largesse) is the virtue of being liberal in charity (practice), giving, often as gifts. Generosity is regarded as a virtue by various world religions and List of philosophies, philosophies and is often celebrated in cultur ...
** Psychological foresight **
Respect Respect, also called esteem, is a positive feeling or deferential action shown towards someone or something considered important or held in high esteem or regard. It conveys a sense of admiration for good or valuable qualities. It is also th ...
*
Philosophy of life (; meaning "philosophy of life") was a dominant philosophical movement of German-speaking countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which had developed out of German Romanticism. emphasised the meaning of life, meaning, value and pur ...
* Relativist morality *
Optimism Optimism is the Attitude (psychology), attitude or mindset of expecting events to lead to particularly positive, favorable, desirable, and hopeful outcomes. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is Is the glass half empty ...


References

{{Reflist


External link


Types of philosophical idealism
in the ''
Encyclopedia Britannica An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...
''. Concepts in ethics History of philosophy Morality Philosophy of life Psychological concepts Reasoning