All 4 Uses of
idealism
in
The Brothers Karamazov
- But yet all his life he loved humanity, and suddenly his eyes were opened, and he saw that it is no great moral blessedness to attain perfection and freedom, if at the same time one gains the conviction that millions of God's creatures have been created as a mockery, that they will never be capable of using their freedom, that these poor rebels can never turn into giants to complete the tower, that it was not for such geese that the great idealist dreamt his dream of harmony.†
Chpt 5
- I want to join an idealist society, I'll lead the opposition in it, I'll say I am a realist, but not a materialist, he he!"†
Chpt 11 *
- The effect left by the lofty idealism of his speech was somewhat marred, and Fetyukovitch's expression, as he watched him walk away, seemed to suggest to the public "this is a specimen of the lofty-minded persons who accuse him."†
Chpt 12
- For my part I wish the excellent and gifted young man every success; I trust that his youthful idealism and impulse towards the ideas of the people may never degenerate, as often happens, on the moral side into gloomy mysticism, and on the political into blind chauvinism—two elements which are even a greater menace to Russia than the premature decay, due to misunderstanding and gratuitous adoption of European ideas, from which his elder brother is suffering.†
Chpt 12
Definition:
-
(idealism as in: youthful idealism) the belief that behavior should be guided by high ideals or standards and often that good things will result -- sometimes used to imply that such beliefs are unrealistic