Idea - Wikipedia





	
	

	
	

	Idea

	
		From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

		

		

		
		

		Jump to navigation
		Jump to search
		"Ideas" redirects here. For other uses, see Ideas (disambiguation) and Idea (disambiguation).

Mental image or concept

  
Plato, one of the first philosophers to discuss ideas in detail. Aristotle claims that many of Plato's views were Pythagorean in origin.



In philosophy, ideas are usually taken as mental representational images of some object. Ideas can also be abstract concepts that do not present as mental images.[1] Many philosophers have considered ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of being. The capacity to create and understand the meaning of ideas is considered to be an essential and defining feature of human beings. In a popular sense, an idea arises in a reflexive, spontaneous manner, even without thinking or serious reflection, for example, when we talk about the idea of a person or a place. A new or an original idea can often lead to innovation.


Contents


	1 Etymology
	2 Innate and adventitious ideas
	3 Philosophy
	3.1 Plato
	3.2 René Descartes
	3.3 John Locke
	3.4 David Hume
	3.5 Immanuel Kant
	3.6 Rudolf Steiner
	3.7 Wilhelm Wundt
	3.8 Charles Sanders Peirce
	3.9 G. F. Stout and J. M. Baldwin



	4 In anthropology and the social sciences
	5 Semantics
	5.1 Samuel Johnson



	6 Relationship of ideas to modern legal time- and scope-limited monopolies
	6.1 Relationship between ideas and patents
	6.1.1 On susceptibility to exclusive property



	6.2 Relationship between ideas and copyrights
	6.3 Relationship of ideas to confidentiality agreements



	7 See also
	8 Notes
	9 References
	10 Further reading





Etymology[edit]

The word idea comes from Greek ἰδέα idea "form, pattern," from the root of ἰδεῖν idein, "to see." [2]


Innate and adventitious ideas[edit]

Main article: Innate idea

One view on the nature of ideas is that there exist some ideas (called innate ideas) which can be general and abstract that they could not have arisen as a representation of an object of our perception but rather were in some sense always present. These are distinguished from adventitious ideas which are images or concepts which are accompanied by the judgment that they are caused or occasioned by an external object.[1]

Another view holds that we only discover ideas in the same way that we discover the real world, from personal experiences. The view that humans acquire all or almost all their behavioral traits from nurture (life experiences) is known as tabula rasa ("blank slate"). Most of the confusions in the way ideas arise is at least in part due to the use of the term "idea" to cover both the representation perceptics and the object of conceptual thought. This can be always illustrated in terms of the scientific doctrines of innate ideas, "concrete ideas versus abstract ideas", as well as "simple ideas versus complex ideas".[3]


Philosophy[edit]

Plato[edit]

Main article: Theory of Forms

Plato in Ancient Greece was one of the earliest philosophers to provide a detailed discussion of ideas and of the thinking process (in Plato's Greek the word idea carries a rather different sense from our modern English term). Plato argued in dialogues such as the Phaedo, Symposium, Republic, and Timaeus that there is a realm of ideas or forms (eidei), which exist independently of anyone who may have thoughts on these ideas, and it is the ideas which distinguish mere opinion from knowledge, for unlike material things which are transient and liable to contrary properties, ideas are unchanging and nothing but just what they are. Consequently, Plato seems to assert forcefully that material things can only be the objects of opinion; real knowledge can only be had of unchanging ideas. Furthermore, ideas for Plato appear to serve as universals; consider the following passage from the Republic:



"We both assert that there are," I said, "and distinguish in speech, many fair things, many good things, and so on for each kind of thing."

"Yes, so we do."

"And we also assert that there is a fair itself, a good itself, and so on for all things that we set down as many. Now, again, we refer to them as one idea of each as though the idea were one; and we address it as that which really is."

"That's so."


"And, moreover, we say that the former are seen, but not intellected, while the ideas are intellected but not seen."
— Plato, Bk. VI 507b-c


René Descartes[edit]

Descartes often wrote of the meaning of idea as an image or representation, often but not necessarily "in the mind", which was well known in the vernacular. Despite that Descartes is usually credited with the invention of the non-Platonic use of the term, he at first followed this vernacular use.b In his Meditations on First Philosophy he says, "Some of my thoughts are like images of things, and it is to these alone that the name 'idea' properly belongs." He sometimes maintained that ideas were innate [4] and uses of the term idea diverge from the original primary scholastic use. He provides multiple non-equivalent definitions of the term, uses it to refer to as many as six distinct kinds of entities, and divides ideas inconsistently into various genetic categories.[5] For him knowledge took the form of ideas and philosophical investigation is the deep consideration of these entities.


John Locke[edit]

In striking contrast to Plato's use of idea [6] is that of John Locke. In his Introduction to An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke defines idea as "that term which, I think, serves best to stand for whatsoever is the object of the understanding when a man thinks, I have used it to express whatever is meant by phantasm, notion, species, or whatever it is which the mind can be employed about in thinking; and I could not avoid frequently using it." [7] He said he regarded the book necessary to examine our own abilities and see what objects our understandings were, or were not, fitted to deal with. In his philosophy other outstanding figures followed in his footsteps — Hume and Kant in the 18th century, Arthur Schopenhauer in the 19th century, and Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Karl Popper in the 20th century. Locke always believed in good sense — not pushing things to extremes and on taking fully into account the plain facts of the matter. He considered his common-sense ideas "good-tempered, moderate, and down-to-earth."

As John Locke studied humans in his work “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” he continually referenced Descartes for ideas as he asked this fundamental question: “When we are concerned with something about which we have no certain knowledge, what rules or standards should guide how confident we allow ourselves to be that our opinions are right?” [8] A simpler way of putting it is how do humans know ideas, and what are the different types of ideas. An idea to Locke “can simply mean some sort of brute experience.” [9] He shows that there are “No innate principles in the mind.”.[10] Thus, he concludes that “our ideas are all experiential in nature.” [11] An experience can either be a sensation or a reflection: “consider whether there are any innate ideas in the mind before any are brought in by the impression from sensation or reflection.” [8] Therefore, an idea was an  experience in which the human mind apprehended something.

In a Lockean view, there are really two types of ideas: complex and simple. Simple ideas  are the building blocks for much more complex ideas, and “While the mind is wholly passive in the reception of simple ideas, it is very active in the building of complex ideas…” [12] Complex ideas, therefore, can either be modes, substances, or relations. Modes are when ideas are combined in order to convey new information. For instance, David Banach [13] gives the example of beauty as a mode. He says that it is the combination of color and form. Substances, however, are different. Substances are certain objects, that can either be dogs, cats, or tables. And relations represent the relationship between two or more ideas.  In this way, Locke did, in fact, answer his own questions about ideas and humans.


David Hume[edit]

Hume differs from Locke by limiting idea to the more or less vague mental reconstructions of perceptions, the perceptual process being described as an "impression." [14][15] Hume shared with Locke the basic empiricist premise that it is only from life experiences (whether their own or others') that humans' knowledge of the existence of anything outside of themselves can be ultimately derived, that they shall carry on doing what they are prompted to do by their emotional drives of varying kinds. In choosing the means to those ends, they shall follow their accustomed associations of ideas.d Hume has contended and defended the notion that "reason alone is merely the 'slave of the passions'." [16][17]


Immanuel Kant[edit]

  
"Modern Book Printing" from the Walk of Ideas



Immanuel Kant defines an idea as opposed to a concept. "Regulative ideas" are ideals that one must tend towards, but by definition may not be completely realized. Liberty, according to Kant, is an idea. The autonomy of the rational and universal subject is opposed to the determinism of the empirical subject.[18] Kant felt that it is precisely in knowing its limits that philosophy exists. The business of philosophy he thought was not to give rules, but to analyze the private judgement of good common sense.e


Rudolf Steiner[edit]

Whereas Kant declares limits to knowledge ("we can never know the thing in itself"), in his epistemological work, Rudolf Steiner sees ideas as "objects of experience" which the mind apprehends, much as the eye apprehends light. In Goethean Science (1883), he declares, "Thinking ... is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colors and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." He holds this to be the premise upon which Goethe made his natural-scientific observations.


Wilhelm Wundt[edit]

Wundt widens the term from Kant's usage to include conscious representation of some object or process of the external world. In so doing, he includes not only ideas of memory and imagination, but also perceptual processes, whereas other psychologists confine the term to the first two groups.[14] One of Wundt's main concerns was to investigate conscious processes in their own context by experiment and introspection. He regarded both of these as exact methods, interrelated in that experimentation created optimal conditions for introspection. Where the experimental method failed, he turned to other objectively valuable aids, specifically to those products of cultural communal life which lead one to infer particular mental motives. Outstanding among these are speech, myth, and social custom. Wundt designed the basic mental activity apperception — a unifying function which should be understood as an activity of the will. Many aspects of his empirical physiological psychology are used today. One is his principles of mutually enhanced contrasts and of assimilation and dissimilation (i.e. in color and form perception and his advocacy of objective methods of expression and of recording results, especially in language. Another is the principle of heterogony of ends — that multiply motivated acts lead to unintended side effects which in turn become motives for new actions.[19]


Charles Sanders Peirce[edit]

C. S. Peirce published the first full statement of pragmatism in his important works "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" (1878) and "The Fixation of Belief" (1877).[20] In "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" he proposed that a clear idea (in his study he uses concept and idea as synonymic) is defined as one, when it is apprehended such as it will be recognized wherever it is met, and no other will be mistaken for it. If it fails of this clearness, it is said to be obscure. He argued that to understand an idea clearly we should ask ourselves what difference its application would make to our evaluation of a proposed solution to the problem at hand. Pragmatism (a term he appropriated for use in this context), he defended, was a method for ascertaining the meaning of terms (as a theory of meaning). The originality of his ideas is in their rejection of what was accepted as a view and understanding of knowledge by scientists for some 250 years, i.e. that, he pointed, knowledge was an impersonal fact. Peirce contended that we acquire knowledge as participants, not as spectators. He felt "the real", sooner or later, is information acquired through ideas and knowledge with the application of logical reasoning would finally result in. He also published many papers on logic in relation to ideas.


G. F. Stout and J. M. Baldwin[edit]

G. F. Stout and J. M. Baldwin, in the Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, define idea as "the reproduction with a more or less adequate image, of an object not actually present to the senses."  [21] They point out that an idea and a perception are by various authorities contrasted in various ways. "Difference in degree of intensity", "comparative absence of bodily movement on the part of the subject", "comparative dependence on mental activity", are suggested by psychologists as characteristic of an idea as compared with a perception.[14]

It should be observed that an idea, in the narrower and generally accepted sense of a mental reproduction, is frequently composite. That is, as in the example given above of the idea of a chair, a great many objects, differing materially in detail, all call a single idea. When a man, for example, has obtained an idea of chairs in general by comparison with which he can say "This is a chair, that is a stool", he has what is known as an "abstract idea" distinct from the reproduction in his mind of any particular chair (see abstraction). Furthermore, a complex idea may not have any corresponding physical object, though its particular constituent elements may severally be the reproductions of actual perceptions. Thus the idea of a centaur is a complex mental picture composed of the ideas of man and horse, that of a mermaid of a woman and a fish.[14]


In anthropology and the social sciences[edit]

Diffusion studies explore the spread of ideas from culture to culture. Some anthropological theories hold that all cultures imitate ideas from one or a few original cultures, the Adam of the Bible, or several cultural circles that overlap. Evolutionary diffusion theory holds that cultures are influenced by one another but that similar ideas can be developed in isolation.

In the mid-20th century, social scientists began to study how and why ideas spread from one person or culture to another.  Everett Rogers pioneered diffusion of innovations studies, using research to prove factors in adoption and profiles of adopters of ideas. In 1976, in his book The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins suggested applying biological evolutionary theories to the spread of ideas. He coined the term meme to describe an abstract unit of selection, equivalent to the gene in evolutionary biology.


Semantics[edit]

Samuel Johnson[edit]

James Boswell recorded Samuel Johnson's opinion about ideas. Johnson claimed that they are mental images or internal visual pictures. As such, they have no relation to words or the concepts which are designated by verbal names.



He was particularly indignant against the almost universal use of the word idea in the sense of notion or opinion, when it is clear that idea can only signify something of which an image can be formed in the mind. We may have an idea or image of a mountain, a tree, a building; but we cannot surely have an idea or image of an argument or proposition. Yet we hear the sages of the law 'delivering their ideas upon the question under consideration;' and the first speakers in parliament 'entirely coinciding in the idea which has been ably stated by an honourable member;' — or 'reprobating an idea unconstitutional, and fraught with the most dangerous consequences to a great and free country.' Johnson called this 'modern cant.'
— Boswell's Life of Johnson, Tuesday, 23 September 1777[22]


Relationship of ideas to modern legal time- and scope-limited monopolies[edit]

Main articles: Intellectual property and Idea-expression divide

Relationship between ideas and patents[edit]

On susceptibility to exclusive property[edit]


It has been pretended by some, (and in England especially,) that inventors have a natural and exclusive right to their inventions, and not merely for their own lives, but inheritable to their heirs. But while it is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is derived from nature at all, it would be singular to admit a natural and even an hereditary right to inventors. It is agreed by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate property in an acre of land, for instance.

By a universal law, indeed, whatever, whether fixed or movable, belongs to all men equally and in common, is the property for the moment of him who occupies it, but when he relinquishes the occupation, the property goes with it. Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property.

If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property.


Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody. Accordingly, it is a fact, as far as I am informed, that England was, until we copied her, the only country on earth which ever, by a general law, gave a legal right to the exclusive use of an idea. In some other countries it is sometimes done, in a great case, and by a special and personal act but, generally speaking, other nations have thought that these monopolies produce more embarrassment than advantage to society.[23]
— Thomas Jefferson, letter to Isaac McPherson, 13 August 1813


To protect the cause of invention and innovation, the legal constructions of Copyrights and Patents were established. Patent law regulates various aspects related to the functional manifestation of inventions based on new ideas or incremental improvements to existing ones. Thus, patents have a direct relationship to ideas.


Relationship between ideas and copyrights[edit]

  
A picture of a lightbulb is often used to represent a person having a bright idea.



In some cases, authors can be granted limited legal monopolies on the manner in which certain works are expressed. This is known colloquially as copyright, although the term intellectual property is used mistakenly in place of copyright. Copyright law regulating the aforementioned monopolies generally does not cover the actual ideas. The law does not bestow the legal status of property upon ideas per se. Instead, laws purport to regulate events related to the usage, copying, production, sale and other forms of exploitation of the fundamental expression of a work, that may or may not carry ideas. Copyright law is fundamentally different from patent law in this respect: patents do grant monopolies on ideas (more on this below).

A copyright is meant to regulate some aspects of the usage of expressions of a work, not an idea. Thus, copyrights have a negative relationship to ideas.

Work means a tangible medium of expression. It may be an original or derivative work of art, be it literary, dramatic, musical recitation, artistic, related to sound recording, etc. In (at least) countries adhering to the Berne Convention, copyright automatically starts covering the work upon the original creation and fixation thereof, without any extra steps. While creation usually involves an idea, the idea in itself does not suffice for the purposes of claiming copyright.[24][25][26][27] 
[28]


Relationship of ideas to confidentiality agreements[edit]

Confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements are legal instruments that assist corporations and individuals in keeping ideas from escaping to the general public. Generally, these instruments are covered by contract law.


See also[edit]


	Philosophy portal
	Psychology portal
	Religion portal



		Look up idea in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.


		Wikiquote has quotations related to: ideas


	Idealism
	Brainstorming
	Creativity techniques
	Diffusion of innovations
	Form
	Ideology
	List of perception-related topics
	Notion (philosophy)
	Object of the mind
	Think tank
	Thought experiment
	History of ideas
	Intellectual history
	Concept
	Philosophical analysis




Notes[edit]


	^ a b Audi, Robert, ed. (1995). Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 355. ISBN 0-521-40224-7.

	^ 
"Definition of idea in English". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2014.

	^ The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1973 
ISBN 0-02-894950-1 
ISBN 978-0-02-894950-5 Vol 4: 120–121

	^ Vol 4: 196–198

	^ Descartes's Ideas

	^ Vol 4: 487–503

	^ 
Locke, John (1689). "Introduction". An Essay Concerning Human Understanding . § What Idea stands for. – via Wikisource.

	^ a b Locke, John. "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." (n.d.): An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book, I: Innate Notions.

	^ Fitzpatrick, John R. Starting with Mill. Continuum, 2010. Starting With. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true &db=e862xna&AN=344063&site=ehost-live

	^ Locke, John. "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (n.d.): An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book, I: Innate Notions

	^ Sheridan, Patricia. Locke: A Guide for the Perplexed. Continuum, 2010. Continuum Guides for the Perplexed. EBSCOhost, nsearch.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e862xna&AN=344177&site=ehost-live

	^ Sheridan, Patricia. Locke: A Guide for the Perplexed. Continuum, 2010. Continuum Guides for the Perplexed. EBSCOhost, nsearch.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct= true&db=e862xna&AN=344177&site=ehost-live.

	^ Banach, David. "Locke on Ideas." Locke on Ideas. St. Anselm College, 2006

	^ a b c d  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Idea". Encyclopædia Britannica. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 280–281.

	^ Vol 4: 74–90

	^ 
"Hume's Moral Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)". Plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2013-06-15.

	^ Hume, David: A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to introduce the experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects. (1739–40)

	^ Vol 4: 305–324

	^ Vol 8: 349–351

	^ Peirce's pragmatism

	^ Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology

	^ 
Boswell, James; Malone, Edmond (1830). The Life of Samuel Johnson ... With copious notes and biographical illustrations, by Malone, etc. John Sharpe – via Google Books.

	^ Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8Article 1, Section 8 (Electronic resources from the University of Chicago Press Books Division)

	^ Protecting Ideas: Can Ideas Be Protected or Patented? – article by Gene Quinn at Ipwatchdog, February 15, 2014

	^ Copyright protection extends to a description, explanation, or illustration of an idea or system, assuming that the requirements of copyright law are met. Copyright in such a case protects the particular literary or pictorial expression chosen by the author. But it gives the copyright owner no exclusive rights concerning the idea, method or system involved. CIT : US Copyright Office, circular 31 reviewed: 01 ⁄ 2012 P

	^ In the case of copyright law, it is the work that realizes the idea that is protected (i.e. a document), and it is the act of recording that work that fixes copyright in the item itself. – CIT : The UK Copyright Service, Issued: 17th May 2007, Last amended: 17th May 2007

	^ (…) there is likely to be an infringement of copyright if the way the information is expressed in the copyrighted work used without the permission of the copyright owner and no exception to infringement applies to the use. This can sometimes occur even if the precise expression is not directly reproduced, but important elements of the work, such as the structure and arrangement of the information, are copied. – CIT : Australien Copyright Council, ACN 001 228 780, 2017

	^ Intellectual property consists of products, work or processes that you have created and which give you a competitive advantage. There are 3 subcategories : Industrial property : inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, new varieties of plants and geographic indications of origin Artistic work protected by copyright: original literary and artistic works, music, television broadcasting, software, databases, architectural designs, advertising creations and multimedia Commercial strategies : trade secrets, know-how, confidentiality agreements, or rapid production. – CIT : Intellectual property rights, European Union, Updated 22/01/2018




References[edit]

	The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1973 
ISBN 0-02-894950-1 
ISBN 978-0-02-894950-5
	Dictionary of the History of Ideas Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1973–74, LCCN 72-7943 
ISBN 0-684-16425-6


		- Nous
	¹ Volume IV 1a, 3a
	² Volume IV 4a, 5a
	³ Volume IV 32 - 37
	Ideas
	Ideology
	Authority
	Education
	Liberalism
	Idea of God
	Pragmatism
	Chain of Being




	The Story of Thought, DK Publishing, Bryan Magee, London, 1998, 
ISBN 0-7894-4455-0


	a.k.a. The Story of Philosophy, Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2001, 
ISBN 0-7894-7994-X
	(subtitled on cover: The Essential Guide to the History of Western Philosophy)
	a Plato, pages 11 - 17, 24 - 31, 42, 50, 59, 77, 142, 144, 150
	b Descartes, pages 78, 84 - 89, 91, 95, 102, 136 - 137, 190, 191
	c Locke, pages 59 - 61, 102 - 109, 122 - 124, 142, 185
	d Hume, pages 61, 103, 112 - 117, 142 - 143, 155, 185
	e Kant, pages 9, 38, 57, 87, 103, 119, 131 - 137, 149, 182
	f Peirce, pages 61, How to Make Our Ideas Clear 186 - 187 and 189
	g Saint Augustine, pages 30, 144; City of God 51, 52, 53 and The Confessions 50, 51, 52
	- additional in the Dictionary of the History of Ideas for Saint Augustine and Neo-Platonism
	h Stoics, pages 22, 40, 44; The governing philosophy of the Roman Empire on pages 46 - 47.
	- additional in Dictionary of the History of Ideas for Stoics, also here [1], and here [2], and here [3].




	The Reader's Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition 1965, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, LCCN 65-12510


		An Encyclopedia of World Literature
	¹apage 774 Plato (c.427–348 BC)
	²apage 779 Francesco Petrarca
	³apage 770 Charles Sanders Peirce
	¹bpage 849 the Renaissance




	This article incorporates text from the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, a publication now in the public domain.


Further reading[edit]

	A. G. Balz, Idea and Essence in the Philosophy of Hobbes and Spinoza (New York 1918)
	Gregory T. Doolan, Aquinas on the divine ideas as exemplar causes (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2008)
	Patricia A. Easton (ed.), Logic and the Workings of the Mind. The Logic of Ideas and Faculty Psychology in Early Modern Philosophy (Atascadero, Calif.: Ridgeview 1997)
	Pierre Garin, La Théorie de l'idée suivant l'école thomiste (Paris 1932)
	Marc A. High, Idea and Ontology. An Essay in Early Modern Metaphysics of Ideas ( Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008)
	Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas (New York 2001)
	Paul Natorp, Platons Ideenlehre (Leipzig 1930)
	
Melchert, Norman (2002). The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy. McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-19-517510-7.
	W. D. Ross, Plato's Theory of Ideas (Oxford 1951)
	Peter Watson, Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London 2005)
	J. W. Yolton, John Locke and the Way of Ideas (Oxford 1956)


		v
	t
	e


Metaphysics

	Metaphysicians	
	Parmenides
	Plato
	Aristotle
	Plotinus
	Duns Scotus
	Thomas Aquinas
	Francisco Suárez
	Nicolas Malebranche
	René Descartes
	John Locke
	David Hume
	Thomas Reid
	Immanuel Kant
	Isaac Newton
	Arthur Schopenhauer
	Baruch Spinoza
	Georg W. F. Hegel
	George Berkeley
	Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
	Christian Wolff
	Bernard Bolzano
	Hermann Lotze
	Henri Bergson
	Friedrich Nietzsche
	Charles Sanders Peirce
	Joseph Maréchal
	Ludwig Wittgenstein
	Martin Heidegger
	Alfred N. Whitehead
	Bertrand Russell
	G. E. Moore
	Jean-Paul Sartre
	Gilbert Ryle
	Hilary Putnam
	P. F. Strawson
	R. G. Collingwood
	Rudolf Carnap
	Saul Kripke
	W. V. O. Quine
	G. E. M. Anscombe
	Donald Davidson
	Michael Dummett
	D. M. Armstrong
	David Lewis
	Alvin Plantinga
	Héctor-Neri Castañeda
	Peter van Inwagen
	Derek Parfit
	Alexius Meinong
	Ernst Mally
	Edward N. Zalta
	more ...




	Theories	
	Abstract object theory
	Action theory
	Anti-realism
	Determinism
	Dualism
	Enactivism
	Essentialism
	Existentialism
	Free will
	Idealism
	Libertarianism
	Liberty
	Materialism
	Meaning of life
	Monism
	Naturalism
	Nihilism
	Phenomenalism
	Realism
	Physicalism
	Platonic idealism
	Relativism
	Scientific realism
	Solipsism
	Subjectivism
	Substance theory
	Truthmaker theory
	Type theory




	Concepts	
	Abstract object
	Anima mundi
	Being
	Category of being
	Causality
	Causal closure
	Choice
	Cogito, ergo sum
	Concept
	Embodied cognition
	Essence
	Existence
	Experience
	Hypostatic abstraction
	Idea
	Identity
	Information
	Insight
	Intelligence
	Intention
	Linguistic modality
	Matter
	Meaning
	Memetics
	Mental representation
	Mind
	Motion
	Nature
	Necessity
	Notion
	Object
	Pattern
	Perception
	Physical object
	Principle
	Property
	Qualia
	Quality
	Reality
	Relation
	Soul
	Subject
	Substantial form
	Thought
	Time
	Truth
	Type–token distinction
	Universal
	Unobservable
	Value
	more ...




	Related topics	
	Axiology
	Cosmology
	Epistemology
	Feminist metaphysics
	Interpretations of quantum mechanics
	Mereology
	Meta-
	Ontology
	Philosophy of mind
	Philosophy of psychology
	Philosophy of self
	Philosophy of space and time
	Teleology
	Theoretical physics




	
	 Category
	 Philosophy portal







	
	v
	t
	e


Philosophy of mind

	Theories	
	Behaviorism (Radical)
	Biological naturalism
	Cognitive psychology
	Computationalism
	Mind–body dualism
	Eliminative materialism
	Emergent materialism
	Emergentism
	Epiphenomenalism
	Functionalism
	Idealism
	Interactionism
	Materialism
	Monism
	Naïve realism
	Neurophenomenology


	Neutral monism
	Occasionalism
	Panpsychism
	Psychoanalysis
	Parallelism
	Phenomenalism
	Phenomenology
	Physicalism
	identity theory


	Property dualism
	Representational
	Solipsism
	Substance dualism




	Concepts	
	Abstract object
	Artificial intelligence
	Chinese room
	Cognition
	Cognitive closure
	Concept
	Concept and object
	Consciousness
	Hard problem of consciousness
	Hypostatic abstraction
	Idea
	Identity
	Ingenuity
	Intelligence
	Intentionality
	Introspection
	Intuition
	Language of thought
	Materialism
	Mental event
	Mental image
	Mental property
	Mental representation
	Mind
	Mind–body problem
	Non-physical entity


	New mysterianism
	Pain
	Perspective-taking
	Privileged access
	Problem of other minds
	Propositional attitude
	Qualia
	Tabula rasa
	Understanding
	Zombie
	more...




	Related topics	
	Metaphysics
	Philosophy of artificial intelligence / information / perception / self




	
	Category
	Philosophers category
	Project
	Task Force
	 Philosophy portal







	
	v
	t
	e


Idealism

	Forms	
	Absolute idealism
	Actual idealism
	British idealism
	Canadian idealism
	German idealism
	Italian idealism
	Monistic idealism
	Epistemological idealism
	Platonic idealism
	Subjective idealism
	Objective idealism
	Transcendental idealism
	Indian idealism
	Monistic idealism (Shaivism)
	Magical (thaumaturgic) idealism
	Buddhist Idealism (consciousness-only)
	Practical Idealism
	Political idealism




	Related topics	
	Idea
	Plato's Theory of Ideas
	Anti-realism
	consciousness-only
	rationalism
	mentalism
	panpsychism
	phenomenalism
	idealistic pluralism
	Idealistic Studies














Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Idea&oldid=998397113"


		Categories: 	A priori
	Abstraction
	Ancient Greek philosophy
	Assumption (reasoning)
	Cognition
	Concepts
	Concepts in aesthetics
	Concepts in ancient Greek metaphysics
	Concepts in ancient Greek philosophy of mind
	Concepts in epistemology
	Concepts in logic
	Concepts in metaphilosophy
	Concepts in metaphysics
	Concepts in the philosophy of mind
	Concepts in the philosophy of science
	Creativity
	Epistemology
	Free will
	History of education
	History of ideas
	History of philosophy
	History of psychology
	Idealism
	Innovation
	Knowledge
	Logic
	Mental content
	Mental processes
	Metaphilosophy
	Metaphysics
	Metaphysics of mind
	Mind
	Mind–body problem
	Observation
	Ontology
	Perception
	Philosophical concepts
	Philosophical theories
	Philosophy of education
	Philosophy of mind
	Plato
	Platonism
	Qualia
	Rationalism
	Reasoning
	Self
	Sources of knowledge
	Subjective experience
	Thought


Hidden categories: 	Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference
	Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
	Articles with short description
	Short description matches Wikidata




	




	





	Navigation menu

	
		

	
		Personal tools
	

	
			Not logged in
	Talk
	Contributions
	Create account
	Log in


		
	



		
			

	
		Namespaces
	

	
			Article
	Talk


		
	



			

	
	
		Variants
	

	
		

		
	



		

		
			

	
		Views
	

	
			Read
	Edit
	View history


		
	



			

	
	
		More
	

	
		

		
	



			
	
		Search
	

	
		
			
			
			
			
		

	




		

	

	

	
		
	

	

	
		Navigation
	

	
			Main page
	Contents
	Current events
	Random article
	About Wikipedia
	Contact us
	Donate


		
	



	

	
		Contribute
	

	
			Help
	Learn to edit
	Community portal
	Recent changes
	Upload file


		
	




	
		Tools
	

	
			What links here
	Related changes
	Upload file
	Special pages
	Permanent link
	Page information
	Cite this page
	Wikidata item


		
	




	
		Print/export
	

	
			Download as PDF
	Printable version


		
	




	
		In other projects
	

	
			Wikimedia Commons
	Wikiquote


		
	



	

	
		Languages
	

	
			العربية
	Azərbaycanca
	Беларуская
	Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎
	Български
	Boarisch
	Bosanski
	Català
	Čeština
	ChiShona
	Cymraeg
	Dansk
	Deutsch
	Eesti
	Ελληνικά
	Эрзянь
	Español
	Esperanto
	Euskara
	فارسی
	Français
	Gaeilge
	Galego
	ГӀалгӀай
	한국어
	Հայերեն
	हिन्दी
	Hrvatski
	Ido
	Bahasa Indonesia
	Interlingua
	Íslenska
	Italiano
	עברית
	ქართული
	Қазақша
	Kurdî
	Кыргызча
	Latviešu
	Lietuvių
	Magyar
	Македонски
	Bahasa Melayu
	မြန်မာဘာသာ
	Nederlands
	日本語
	Norsk bokmål
	Norsk nynorsk
	Occitan
	Oʻzbekcha/ўзбекча
	ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
	Polski
	Português
	Română
	Русский
	Shqip
	Simple English
	Slovenčina
	کوردی
	Српски / srpski
	Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
	Suomi
	Svenska
	தமிழ்
	Taqbaylit
	Татарча/tatarça
	Українська
	اردو
	Vèneto
	Tiếng Việt
	Winaray
	吴语
	ייִדיש
	粵語
	中文


		Edit links

	









		 This page was last edited on 5 January 2021, at 05:33 (UTC).
	Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
additional terms may apply.  By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



		Privacy policy
	About Wikipedia
	Disclaimers
	Contact Wikipedia
	Mobile view
	Developers
	Statistics
	Cookie statement