On Idealism

 

Humanity has always been obsessed with perfection.  Maybe it was the Renaissance that did us in. The Age of Enlightenment maybe? Perhaps this is just another experiment of western culture. We should all want to get better, but is the ideal really worth it? That’s a question worth examining because what do we lose if the universal is never attained? It’s been a core attitude in philosophy since ancient times to take on this concept and try to explain the exactness of what it encompasses in the scope of man.

In all seriousness: idealism is the conversation of the gods. Historically, idealism has been placed right alongside mathematics, music, geometry, and most importantly, metaphysics. The ideal is properly defined as that which never changes, is objective, and its only access is through the faculties of the human mind. Immanuel Kant referred to it as “noumenon”; Plato recognized it as “forms”, Schopenhauer as “will”, and Nietzsche as “nihilism” … that last one takes some heavy explaining. In the end, they were all talking about truth. And it is indeed objective.

The problem with the ideal is its ever-present inescapability. It’s always right there in front of us, yet it is so difficult to grasp. It could be the perfect figure of a model in a magazine, the genuine prose of one’s favorite novel, or the aesthetic in art that we would dare to call the sublime.  However, there it is all the same, and found in each and every human activity that requires practice, deliberation, and performance. Without the knowledge of it, we may as well still be neanderthals running amok like children during recess: no goal, no plan, and no aim whatsoever.

Furthermore, it can lead to egoist claims, self-delusions, and narcissism, but this only occurs in those who try and justify it. The “thing in itself” is the exact thing that is not part of this world and never will be. It’s conceptual and not organic. Idealism has no grass roots nor would it ever pretend to be something natural. It’s fiction made reality and more concrete than the base of the Statue of Liberty. We can all ignore it, and many of us do because we tell ourselves that it isn’t worth seeking, at least as we age, anyway.

The irony is, no matter who is consulted, we all agree that we are not perfect. Then why do we strive to know perfection? That’s the simplest question I know of. Are our desires wired that way? Simply put: we want the best.  It is what everybody desires, and if they deny it, then certainly, it’s a lie. The ideal is found in anything ideological where a group of people claim that this is the way. Because it has to be the way.

Idealism, much like a dog, needs to be kept on a leash. It has a way of defining people and making them look silly if they try and partake. Have any of us ever looked at a piece of art and claimed ignorance to what it is? Or, perhaps it was a fashion show that included none of the latter and all of the former. Maybe it was pi 3.14. What a farce! Even those wholesome, subjective claims that everyone prescribes to have bent the knee to its powerful grasp. Idealism must have proper authority to drive its arc. It goes all the way into the nonsensical if that part is ignored.

It is for certain that perfection exists. Can we always achieve it? Most certainly not. It, ironically, will always be the solution and the problem all the same. If we reach our destination then great, but if we fail, then it was the lofty goal and our own stupidity to believe it at all possible. Yes, my friends, we are all condemned to seek that which is perfect.