n. In the Platonic philosophy, and in similar idealistic thought, an archetype, or pure immaterial pattern, of which the individual objects in any one natural class are but the imperfect copies, and by participation in which they have their being: in this sense the word is generally qualified by the adjective Platonic.n. Socrates, he [Parmenides] said, I admire the bent of your mind towards philosophy; tell me, now, was this your own distinction between abstract ideas and the things which partake of them? and do you think that there is an idea of likeness apart from the likeness which we possess, or of the one and many, or of the other notions of which Zeno has been speaking?n. I think that there are such abstract ideas, said Socrates.n. Parmenides proceeded. And would you also make abstract ideas of the just and the beautiful and the good, and of all that class of notions?n. Yes, he said, I should.n. And would you make an abstract idea of man distinct from us and from all other human creatures, or of fire and water?n. A mental image or picture.n. In the language of Descartes and of English philosophers, an immediate object of thought —that is, what one feels when one feels, or fancies when one fancies, or thinks when one thinks, and, in short, whatever is in one's understanding and directly present to cognitive consciousness.n. A conception of what is desirable or ought to be, different from what has been observed; a governing conception or principle; a teleological conception.n. In the Kantian philosophy, a conception of reason the object of which transcends all possible experience, as God, Freedom of the Will, Immortality; in the Hegelian philos., the absolute truth of which everything that exists is the expression —the ideal realized, the essence which includes its own existence: in the latter sense commonly used with the definite article; in other a priori philosophies, an a priori conception of a perfection to be aimed at, not corresponding to anything observed, nor ever fully realized.n. An opinion; a thought, especially one not well established by evidence.n. An abstract principle, of not much immediate practical consequence in existing circumstances.n. [capitalized] In entomology, a genus of nymphalid butterflies, based on the Indian Nymphalis idea: now called Hestia.n. In music, a theme or subject; a phrase; sometimes, a figure. Often called a musical idea.n. Same as imperative idea .n. . Same as fixed idea .
