Sacramentum Mundi Online

1. History. The idea, throughout all its changes of meaning, whether accepted or rejected, is one of the basic terms of Western thought, whose Unity and differentiation it displays in the most concentrated form. ’Ιδέα means first of all appearance, form, character. Plato uses it for the essence, first for that of the virtues in contrast to their distinctive modes of realization in the concrete, then for virtue as such and for the good in itself and the true reality of all beings. These essences (…

A. General Notions In philosophy, idealism is the general term for the speculative position which may be described as follows: 1. When considering the similarities and diversities, the identities and the differences of which reality is composed, its intention is always directed to the universal, to what is common in the manifold individuals. It looks to the dominant factor which embraces the many and subsumes them into the whole of reality. It aims on each level at the single concept which will make the multiple co…

1. The principle of identity. The identity of each thing with itself is taken to be the most simple and obvious principle of all logic and philosophy. Without the principle of identity (A = A) there could be no unambiguous and consistent thought and language. Nonetheless, identity is not an experience reflecting external objects. It is given in the self-experience of the human subject. In the consciousness of self, the Ego knows itself as the self which persists throughout all the changes which affe…

1. Concept and problems. The term, ideology first appears in the discussions carried on by the French Enlightenment with Napoleon Bonaparte. The “Idéologues” were looked on by the political reactionaries as unworldly doctrinaires. But the general view is that “ideology” has a history going back as far as Bacon. It is still hardly possible to give a strict definition of ideology. The term is used in many ways — from the popular way of identifying ideology with programmed lying, the sceptical treatme…