Idea

Idea, ī-dē′a, n. an image of an external object formed by the mind: a notion, thought, any product of intellectual action—of memory and imagination: an archetype of the manifold varieties of existence in the universe, belonging to the supersensible world, where reality is found and where God is (Platonic); one of the three products of the reason (the Soul, the Universe, and God) transcending the conceptions of the understanding—transcendental ideas, in the functions of mind concerned with the unification of existence (Kantian); the ideal realised, the absolute truth of which everything that exists is the expression (Hegelian).—adjs. Idē′aed, Idē′a'd, provided with an idea or ideas; Idē′al, existing in idea: mental: existing in imagination only: the highest and best conceivable, the perfect, as opposed to the real, the imperfect.—n. the highest conception of anything.—adj. Idē′aless.—n. Idealisā′tion, act of forming an idea, or of raising to the highest conception.—v.t. Idē′alise, to form an idea: to raise to the highest conception.—v.i. to form ideas.—ns. Idē′alīser; Idē′alism, the doctrine that in external perceptions the objects immediately known are ideas, that all reality is in its nature psychical: any system that considers thought or the idea as the ground either of knowledge or existence: tendency towards the highest conceivable perfection, love for or search after the best and highest: the imaginative treatment of subjects; Idē′alist, one who holds the doctrine of idealism, one who strives after the ideal: an unpractical person.—adj. Idealist′ic, pertaining to idealists or to idealism.—n. Ideal′ity, ideal state: ability and disposition to form ideals of beauty and perfection.—adv. Idē′ally, in an ideal manner: mentally.—n. Idē′alogue, one given to ideas: a theorist.—v.i. Idē′ate, to form ideas.—adj. produced by an idea.—n. the correlative or object of an idea.—n. Ideā′tion, the power of the mind for forming ideas: the exercise of such power.—adjs. Ideā′tional, Idē′ative. [L.,—Gr. idea—idein, to see.]