idealism

Meaning

Noun

• The property of a person of having high ideals that are usually unrealizable or at odds with practical life.
• The practice or habit of giving or attributing ideal form or character to things; treatment of things in art or literature according to ideal standards or patterns;—opposed to realism.
• An approach to philosophical enquiry, which asserts that direct and immediate knowledge can only be had of ideas or mental pictures.

Origin

• First attested 1796, from ideal + -ism.