Idealism, the attitude that places special value on ideas and ideals as products of

the mind, in comparison with the world as perceived through the senses. In art
idealism is the tendency to represent things as aesthetic sensibility would have
them rather than as they are. In ethics it implies a view of life in which the
predominant forces are spiritual and the aim is perfection. In philosophy the term
refers to efforts to account for all objects in nature and experience as
representations of the mind and sometimes to assign to such representations a
higher order of existence. It is opposed to materialism. Plato conceived a world in
which eternal ideas constituted reality, of which the ordinary world of experience
is a shadow. In modern times idealism has largely come to refer the source of
ideas to man's consciousness, whereas in the earlier period ideas were assigned
a reality outside and independent of man's existence. Nevertheless, modern
idealism generally proposes suprahuman mental activity of some sort and
ascribes independent reality to certain principles, such as creativity, a force for
good, or an absolute truth. The subjective idealism of George Berkeley in the
18th cent. held that the apparently objective world has its existence in the
consciousness of individuals. Immanuel Kant developed a critical or
transcendental idealism in which the phenomenal world, constituted by the
human understanding, stands opposed to a world of things-in-themselves. The
post-Kantian German idealism of J. G. Fichte and Friedrich von Schelling, which
culminated in the absolute or objective idealism of G. W. F. Hegel, began with a
denial of the unknowable thing-in-itself, thereby enabling these philosophers to
treat all reality as the creation of mind or spirit. Forms of post-Kantian idealism
were developed in Germany by Arthur Schopenhauer and Hermann Lotze and in
England by Samuel Coleridge; forms of post-Hegelian idealism were developed in
England and France by T. H. Green, Victor Cousin, and C. B. Renouvier. More
recent idealists include F. H. Bradley, Bernard Bosanquet, Josiah Royce,
Benedetto Croce, and the neo-Kantians such as Ernst Cassirer and Hermann
Cohen.

Cultural relativism is a principle that was established as axiomatic in anthropological

research by Franz Boas in the first few decades of the 20th century and later popularized by
his students. Boas first articulated the idea in 1887: "...civilization is not something absolute,
but ... is relative, and ... our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization
goes."[1] However, Boas did not coin the term.
The first use of the term recorded in the Dictionary was by philosopher and social theorist
Alain Locke in 1924 to describe Robert Lowie's "extreme cultural relativism", found in the
latter's 1917 book Culture and Ethnology.[2] The term became common among
anthropologists after Boas' death in 1942, to express their synthesis of a number of ideas
Boas had developed. Boas believed that the sweep of cultures, to be found in connection with
any sub species, is so vast and pervasive that there cannot be a relationship between cultures
and races.[3] Cultural relativism involves specific epistemological and methodological claims.

Whether or not these claims necessitate a specific ethical stance is a matter of debate. This
principle should not be confused with moral relativism.

Relativism is the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only
relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration.[1] As moral
relativism, the term is often used in the context of moral principles, where principles and
ethics are regarded as applicable in only limited context. There are many forms of relativism
which vary in their degree of controversy.[2] The term often refers to truth relativism, which is
the doctrine that there are no absolute truths, i.e., that truth is always relative to some
particular frame of reference, such as a language or a culture (cultural relativism).[citation needed]

Contents

1. The mind is the principle of explanation and knowledge of any-thing, even of

the mind itself, is a product of the mind.2. The mind is of a different nature than
matter. It is composed of a differentsubstance.3. There can be no object without
a subject thinking about it.The last of these three arguments is directly related to
the position taken byBishop George Berkeley. This will be discussed in more
detail in a later sectionof this chapter.Perhaps the fullest picture of the
educational concomitants of idealism can begained by studying the educational
system of Italy as it was reformed byGiovanni Gentile. Between 1922 and 1924
Gentile was Minister of Education inthe Mussolini government.Gentile also
developed a theoretical justification for Italian fascism and theconception of
mans subservient relationship to the state. This places the state inthe position of
being a closer approximation of the Ideal than the individual, andfor this reason
the individual owes his allegiance to the state.Idealism and realism in education
are often considered together in educationalphilosophy under the name
essentialism. This is in part because, although their of the universe differ
radically, their view concerning the nature of truth aresimilar. Both of these
positions, as we shall see, view truth as immutable,permanent, and unchanging.
Definition and meaning of Idealism
The main tenant of idealism is that ideas and knowledge are the truest
reality.Many things in the world change, but ideas and knowledge are
enduring.Idealism was often referred to as idea-ism. Idealists believe that ideas
canchange lives. The most important part of a person is the mind. It is to
benourished and developed.

Plato, who taught in the Grove of Academus (or simply "Academeia") in

Athens,argued that only concepts are real since they do not change over time as
do theobjects they represent. Nothing exists until the idea of it exists,
hence somes u p r e m e p o w e r m u s t h a v e c o n c e i v e d o f t h e u n i v e r s e

b e f o r e i t c a m e i n t o existence. Real objects are the concepts in one's mind,

which must be deliveredby the teacher, a kind of mental midwife (see
"maieutics" in the Archives). Thiswas the original, philosophical meaning of
"idealism," seldom used any more outside the philosophy classroom.