[ahy-dee-uh-liz-uh
m] 
| 1. | the cherishing or pursuit of high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc. |
| 2. | the practice of idealizing. |
| 3. | something idealized; an ideal representation. |
| 4. | Fine Arts. treatment of subject matter in a work of art in which a mental conception of beauty or form is stressed, characterized usually by the selection of particular features of various models and their combination into a whole according to a standard of perfection. Compare naturalism (def. 2), realism (def. 3a). |
| 5. | Philosophy.
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| i·de·al·ism (ī-dē'ə-lĭz'əm) n.
|
An approach to philosophy that regards mind, spirit, or ideas as the most fundamental kinds of reality, or at least as governing our experience of the ordinary objects in the world. Idealism is opposed to materialism, naturalism, and realism. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was an idealist; so was Immanuel Kant.