The original cover of Thomas Hobbes's work Leviathan (1651), in which he discusses the concept of the social contract theory.
A social contract happens between a government and its people. The
people agree to give up some freedoms if the government agrees to
protect everyone's rights.
In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is a theory or model that originated during the Age of Enlightenment and usually concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Social contract arguments typically posit that individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly,
to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority (of the
ruler, or to the decision of a majority) in exchange for protection of
their remaining rights or maintenance of the social order. The relation between natural and legal rights is often a topic of social contract theory. The term takes its name from The Social Contract (French: Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique), a 1762 book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau that discussed this concept. Although the antecedents of social contract theory are found in antiquity, in Greek and Stoic philosophy and Roman and Canon Law,
the heyday of the social contract was the mid-17th to early 19th
centuries, when it emerged as the leading doctrine of political
legitimacy.
The starting point for most social contract theories is an
examination of the human condition absent of any political order (termed
the "state of nature" by Thomas Hobbes). In this condition, individuals' actions are bound only by their personal power and conscience.
From this shared starting point, social contract theorists seek to
demonstrate why rational individuals would voluntarily consent to give
up their natural freedom to obtain the benefits of political order.
Prominent 17th- and 18th-century theorists of the social contract and
natural rights include Hugo Grotius (1625), Thomas Hobbes (1651), Samuel von Pufendorf (1673), John Locke (1689), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) and Immanuel Kant (1797), each approaching the concept of political authority differently. Grotius posited that individual humans had natural rights. Thomas Hobbes
famously said that in a "state of nature", human life would be
"solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". In the absence of political
order and law, everyone would have unlimited natural freedoms, including
the "right to all things" and thus the freedom to plunder rape and
murder; there would be an endless "war of all against all" (bellum omnium contra omnes). To avoid this, free men contract with each other to establish political community (civil society)
through a social contract in which they all gain security in return for
subjecting themselves to an absolute sovereign, one man or an assembly
of men. Though the sovereign's edicts may well be arbitrary and
tyrannical, Hobbes saw absolute government as the only alternative to
the terrifying anarchy of a state of nature. Hobbes asserted that humans
consent to abdicate their rights in favor of the absolute authority of
government (whether monarchical or parliamentary). Alternatively, Locke
and Rousseau argued that we gain civil rights in return for accepting
the obligation to respect and defend the rights of others, giving up
some freedoms to do so.
The central assertion that social contract theory approaches is
that law and political order are not natural, but human creations. The
social contract and the political order it creates are simply the means
towards an end—the benefit of the individuals involved—and legitimate
only to the extent that they fulfill their part of the agreement. Hobbes
argued that government is not a party to the original contract and
citizens are not obligated to submit to the government when it is too
weak to act effectively to suppress factionalism and civil unrest.
According to other social contract theorists, when the government fails
to secure their natural rights (Locke) or satisfy the best interests of
society (called the "general will"
by Rousseau), citizens can withdraw their obligation to obey or change
the leadership through elections or other means including, when
necessary, violence. Locke believed that natural rights
were inalienable, and therefore the rule of God superseded government
authority, while Rousseau believed that democracy (self-rule) was the
best way to ensure welfare while maintaining individual freedom under
the rule of law. The Lockean concept of the social contract was invoked
in the United States Declaration of Independence. Social contract theories were eclipsed in the 19thcentury in favor of utilitarianism, Hegelianism and Marxism; they were revived in the 20thcentury, notably in the form of a thought experiment by John Rawls.
Overview
The model of the social contract
There is a general form of social contract theories, which is:
I chooses R in M and this gives I* reason to endorse and comply with R in the real world insofar as the reasons I has for choosing R in M are (or can be) shared by I*.
With M being the deliberative setting; R rules, principles or institutions; I the (hypothetical) people in original position or state of nature making the social contract; and I* being the individuals in the real world following the social contract.
History
The concept of the social contract was originally posed by Glaucon, as described by Plato in The Republic, BookII.
They say that to do injustice is,
by nature, good; to suffer injustice, evil; but that the evil is greater
than the good. And so when men have both done and suffered injustice
and have had experience of both, not being able to avoid the one and
obtain the other, they think that they had better agree among themselves
to have neither; hence there arise laws and mutual covenants; and that
which is ordained by law is termed by them lawful and just. This they
affirm to be the origin and nature of justice;—it is a mean or
compromise, between the best of all, which is to do injustice and not be
punished, and the worst of all, which is to suffer injustice without
the power of retaliation; and justice, being at a middle point between
the two, is tolerated not as a good, but as the lesser evil, and
honoured by reason of the inability of men to do injustice. For no man
who is worthy to be called a man would ever submit to such an agreement
if he were able to resist; he would be mad if he did. Such is the
received account, Socrates, of the nature and origin of justice.
The social contract theory also appears in Crito, another dialogue from Plato. Over time, the social contract theory became more widespread after Epicurus
(341-270 BC), the first philosopher who saw justice as a social
contract, and not as existing in Nature due to divine intervention (see
below and also Epicurean ethics),
decided to bring the theory to the forefront of his society. As time
went on, philosophers of traditional political and social thought, such
as Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau put forward their opinions on social
contract, which then caused the topic to become much more mainstream.
Classical thought
Social contract formulations are preserved in many of the world's oldest records. The Buddhist text of the second century BCE, Mahāvastu, recounts the legend of Mahasammata. The story goes as follows:
In the early days of the cosmic
cycle mankind lived on an immaterial plane, dancing on air in a sort of
fairyland, where there was no need of food or clothing, and no private
property, family, government or laws. Then gradually the process of
cosmic decay began its work, and mankind became earthbound, and felt the
need of food and shelter. As men lost their primeval glory,
distinctions of class arose, and they entered into agreements with one
another, accepting the institution of private property and the family.
With this theft, murder, adultery, and other crime began, and so the
people met together and decided to appoint one man from among them to
maintain order in return for a share of the produce of their fields and
herds. He was called "the Great Chosen One" (Mahasammata), and he
received the title of raja because he pleased the people.
In his rock edicts, the Buddhist king Asoka was said to have argued for a broad and far-reaching social contract. The Buddhist vinaya
also reflects social contracts expected of the monks; one such instance
is when the people of a certain town complained about monks felling
saka trees, the Buddha tells his monks that they must stop and give way
to social norms.
Epicurus
in the fourth century BCE seemed to have had a strong sense of social
contract, with justice and law being rooted in mutual agreement and
advantage, as evidenced by these lines, among others, from his Principal Doctrines:
31. Natural justice is a pledge of reciprocal benefit, to prevent one man from harming or being harmed by another.
32. Those animals which are incapable of making binding
agreements with one another not to inflict nor suffer harm are without
either justice or injustice; and likewise for those peoples who either
could not or would not form binding agreements not to inflict nor suffer
harm.
33. There never was such a thing as absolute justice, but only
agreements made in mutual dealings among men in whatever places at
various times providing against the infliction or suffering of harm.
Renaissance developments
Quentin Skinner
has argued that several critical modern innovations in contract theory
are found in the writings from French Calvinists and Huguenots, whose
work in turn was invoked by writers in the Low Countries who objected to their subjection to Spain and, later still, by Catholics in England. Francisco Suárez (1548–1617), from the School of Salamanca, might be considered an early theorist of the social contract, theorizing natural law in an attempt to limit the divine right of absolute monarchy. All of these groups were led to articulate notions of popular sovereignty
by means of a social covenant or contract, and all of these arguments
began with proto-"state of nature" arguments, to the effect that the
basis of politics is that everyone is by nature free of subjection to
any government.
These arguments, however, relied on a corporatist theory found in
Roman law, according to which "a populus" can exist as a distinct legal
entity. Thus, these arguments held that a group of people can join a
government because it has the capacity to exercise a single will and
make decisions with a single voice in the absence of sovereign
authority—a notion rejected by Hobbes and later contract theorists.
The first modern philosopher to articulate a detailed contract theory was Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679). According to Hobbes, the lives of individuals in the state of nature
were "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short", a state in which
self-interest and the absence of rights and contracts prevented the
"social", or society. Life was "anarchic" (without leadership or the
concept of sovereignty). Individuals in the state of nature were
apolitical and asocial. This state of nature is followed by the social
contract.
The social contract was seen as an "occurrence" during which individuals came together and ceded some of their individual rights so that others would cede theirs.
This resulted in the establishment of the state, a sovereign entity
like the individuals now under its rule used to be, which would create
laws to regulate social interactions. Human life was thus no longer "a
war of all against all".
The state system, which grew out of the social contract, was,
however, also anarchic (without leadership). Just as the individuals in
the state of nature had been sovereigns and thus guided by self-interest
and the absence of rights, so states now acted in their self-interest
in competition with each other. Just like the state of nature, states
were thus bound to be in conflict because there was no sovereign over
and above the state (more powerful) capable of imposing some system such
as social-contract laws on everyone by force. Indeed, Hobbes' work
helped to serve as a basis for the realism theories of international relations, advanced by E. H. Carr and Hans Morgenthau. Hobbes wrote in Leviathan that humans ("we") need the "terrour of some Power" otherwise humans will not heed the law of reciprocity, "(in summe) doing to others, as wee would be done to".
John Locke's Second Treatise of Government (1689)
John Locke's
conception of the social contract differed from Hobbes' in several
fundamental ways, retaining only the central notion that persons in a
state of nature would willingly come together to form a state. Locke
believed that individuals in a state of nature would be bound morally,
by the Law of Nature, not to harm each other in their lives or
possessions. Without government to defend them against those seeking to
injure or enslave them, Locke further believed people would have no
security in their rights and would live in fear. Individuals, to Locke,
would only agree to form a state that would provide, in part, a "neutral
judge", acting to protect the lives, liberty, and property of those who
lived within it.
While Hobbes argued for near-absolute authority, Locke argued for inviolate freedom under law in his Second Treatise of Government.
Locke argued that a government's legitimacy comes from the citizens'
delegation to the government of their absolute right of violence
(reserving the inalienable right of self-defense or
"self-preservation"), along with elements of other rights (e.g. property
will be liable to taxation) as necessary to achieve the goal of
security through granting the state a monopoly of violence, whereby the
government, as an impartial judge, may use the collective force of the
populace to administer and enforce the law, rather than each man acting
as his own judge, jury, and executioner—the condition in the state of
nature.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Du Contrat social (1762)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), in his influential 1762 treatise The Social Contract, outlined a different version of social-contract theory, as the foundations of society based on the sovereignty of the ‘general will’.
Rousseau's political theory differs in important ways from that
of Locke and Hobbes. Rousseau's collectivist conception is most evident
in his development of the "luminous conception" (which he credited to Denis Diderot) of the ‘general will’. Summarised, the ‘general will’ is the power of all the citizens' collective interest - not to be confused with their individual interests.
Although Rousseau wrote that the British were perhaps at the time the
freest people on earth, he did not approve of their representative
government, nor any form of representative government. Rousseau believed
that society was only legitimate when the sovereign (i.e. the ‘general will’) were the sole legislators.
He also stated that the individual must accept “the total alienation to
the whole community of each associate with all his rights”. In short, Rousseau meant that in order for the social contract to work, individuals must forfeit their rights to the whole so that such conditions were “equal for all".
[The social contract] can be reduced to the following terms: Each
of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme
direction of the general will; and in a body, we receive each member as
an indivisible part of the whole.
Rousseau's striking phrase that man must "be forced to be free" should be understood
this way: since the indivisible and inalienable popular sovereignty
decides what is good for the whole, if an individual rejects this "civil
liberty" in place of "natural liberty"
and self interest, disobeying the law, he will be forced to listen to
what was decided when the people acted as a collective (as citizens).
Thus the law, inasmuch as it is created by the people acting as a body,
is not a limitation of individual freedom, but rather its expression.
The individual, as a citizen, explicitly agreed to be constrained if; as
a private individual, he did not respect his own will as formulated in
the general will.
Because laws represent the restraint of "natural liberty",
they represent the leap made from humans in the state of nature into
civil society. In this sense, the law is a civilizing force. Therefore
Rousseau believed that the laws that govern a people help to mould their
character.
Rousseau also analyses the social contract in terms of risk management,
thus suggesting the origins of the state as a form of mutual insurance.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's individualist social contract (1851)
While Rousseau's social contract is based on popular sovereignty and not on individual sovereignty, there are other theories espoused by individualists, libertarians, and anarchists that do not involve agreeing to anything more than negative rights and creates only a limited state, if any.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
(1809–1865) advocated a conception of social contract that did not
involve an individual surrendering sovereignty to others. According to
him, the social contract was not between individuals and the state, but
rather among individuals who refrain from coercing or governing each
other, each one maintaining complete sovereignty upon him- or herself:
What really is the Social Contract?
An agreement of the citizen with the government? No, that would mean
but the continuation of [Rousseau's] idea. The social contract is an
agreement of man with man; an agreement from which must result what we
call society. In this, the notion of commutative justice, first brought
forward by the primitive fact of exchange, ... is substituted for that
of distributive justice ... Translating these words, contract,
commutative justice, which are the language of the law, into the
language of business, and you have commerce, that is to say, in its
highest significance, the act by which man and man declare themselves
essentially producers, and abdicate all pretension to govern each other.
Building on the work of Immanuel Kant with its presumption of limits on the state, John Rawls (1921–2002), in A Theory of Justice (1971), proposed a contractarian approach whereby rational people in a hypothetical "original position" would set aside their individual preferences and capacities under a "veil of ignorance" and agree to certain general principles of justice and legal organization. This idea is also used as a game-theoretical formalization of the notion of fairness.
David Gauthier
"neo-Hobbesian" theory argues that cooperation between two independent
and self-interested parties is indeed possible, especially when it comes
to understanding morality and politics. Gauthier notably points out the advantages of cooperation between two parties when it comes to the challenge of the prisoner's dilemma.
He proposes that, if two parties were to stick to the original
agreed-upon arrangement and morals outlined by the contract, they would
both experience an optimal result.In his model for the social contract, factors including trust,
rationality, and self-interest keep each party honest and dissuade them
from breaking the rules.
Philip Pettit's Republicanism (1997)
Philip Pettit (b. 1945) has argued, in Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government (1997), that the theory of social contract, classically based on the consent of the governed, should be modified. Instead of arguing for explicit consent, which can always be manufactured, Pettit argues that the absence of an effective rebellion against it is a contract's only legitimacy.
Criticism
Consent of the governed
An early critic of social contract theory was Rousseau's friend, the philosopher David Hume, who in 1742 published an essay "Of Civil Liberty". The second part of this essay, entitled "Of the Original Contract", stresses that the concept of a "social contract" is a convenient fiction:
As
no party, in the present age can well support itself without a
philosophical or speculative system of principles annexed to its
political or practical one; we accordingly find that each of the
factions into which this nation is divided has reared up a fabric of the
former kind, in order to protect and cover that scheme of actions which
it pursues. ... The one party [defenders of the absolute and divine
right of kings, or Tories], by tracing up government to the DEITY,
endeavor to render it so sacred and inviolate that it must be little
less than sacrilege, however tyrannical it may become, to touch or
invade it in the smallest article. The other party [the Whigs, or
believers in constitutional monarchy], by founding government altogether
on the consent of the PEOPLE suppose that there is a kind of original
contract by which the subjects have tacitly reserved the power of
resisting their sovereign, whenever they find themselves aggrieved by
that authority with which they have for certain purposes voluntarily
entrusted him.
— David Hume, "On Civil Liberty" [II.XII.1]
Hume argued that consent of the governed was the ideal foundation on which a government should rest, but that it had not actually occurred this way in general.
My
intention here is not to exclude the consent of the people from being
one just foundation of government where it has place. It is surely the
best and most sacred of any. I only contend that it has very seldom had
place in any degree and never almost in its full extent. And that
therefore some other foundation of government must also be admitted.
— Ibid II.XII.20
Natural law and constitutionalism
Legal scholar Randy Barnett has argued that, while presence in the territory of a society may be necessary for consent, this does not constitute consent to all
rules the society might make regardless of their content. A second
condition of consent is that the rules be consistent with underlying
principles of justice and the protection of natural and social rights,
and have procedures for effective protection of those rights (or
liberties). This has also been discussed by O.A. Brownson, who argued that, in a sense, three "constitutions" are involved: first, the constitution of nature that includes all of what the Founders called "natural law"; second, the constitution of society,
an unwritten and commonly understood set of rules for the society
formed by a social contract before it establishes a government, by which
it does establish the third, a constitution of government. To consent, a necessary condition is that the rules be constitutional in that sense.
Tacit consent
The
theory of an implicit social contract holds that by remaining in the
territory controlled by some society, which usually has a government,
people give consent to join that society and be governed by its
government if any. This consent is what gives legitimacy to such a
government.
Other writers have argued that consent to join the society is not
necessarily consent to its government. For that, the government must be
set up according to a constitution of government that is consistent
with the superior unwritten constitutions of nature and society.
Explicit consent
The theory of an implicit social contract also goes under the principles of explicit consent.
The main difference between tacit consent and explicit consent is that
explicit consent is meant to leave no room for misinterpretation.
Moreover, you should directly state what it is that you want and the
person has to respond in a concise manner that either confirms or denies
the proposition.
Contracts must be consensual
According
to the will theory of contract, a contract is not presumed valid unless
all parties voluntarily agree to it, either tacitly or explicitly,
without coercion. Lysander Spooner,
a 19th-century lawyer who argued before the Supreme Court and staunch
supporter of a right of contract between individuals, argued in his
essay No Treason
that a supposed social contract cannot be used to justify governmental
actions such as taxation because government will initiate force against
anyone who does not wish to enter into such a contract. As a result, he
maintains that such an agreement is not voluntary and therefore cannot
be considered a legitimate contract at all. An abolitionist, he made similar arguments about the unconstitutionality of slavery in the US.
Modern Anglo-American law, like European civil law, is based on a
will theory of contract, according to which all terms of a contract are
binding on the parties because they chose those terms for themselves.
This was less true when Hobbes wrote Leviathan; at that time more
importance was attached to consideration, meaning a mutual exchange of
benefits necessary to the formation of a valid contract, and most
contracts had implicit terms that arose from the nature of the
contractual relationship rather than from the choices made by the
parties. Accordingly, it has been argued that social contract theory is
more consistent with the contract law of the time of Hobbes and Locke
than with the contract law of our time, and that certain features in the
social contract which seem anomalous to us, such as the belief that we
are bound by a contract formulated by our distant ancestors, would not
have seemed as strange to Hobbes' contemporaries as they do to us.
The Quiet Revolution (French: Révolution tranquille) was a period of intense socio-political and socio-cultural change in the Canadian province of Québec that started after the elections of 1960, characterized by the effective secularization of government, the creation of a state-run welfare state (état-providence), and realignment of politics into federalist and sovereigntist (or separatist) factions and the eventual election of a pro-sovereignty provincial government in the 1976 election. The Quiet Revolution typically refers to the efforts made by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage (elected in 1960), and sometimes Robert Bourassa (elected in 1970 after the Union Nationale's Daniel Johnson
in 1966), though given the profound effect of the changes, most
provincial governments since the early 1960s have maintained an
orientation based on core concepts developed and implemented in that
era.
A primary change was an effort by the provincial government to
take more direct control over the fields of healthcare and education,
which had previously been in the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. It created ministries of Health and Education,
expanded the public service, and made massive investments in the public
education system and provincial infrastructure. The government further
allowed unionization of the civil service. It took measures to increase Québécois control over the province's economy and nationalized electricity production and distribution and worked to establish the Canada/Québec Pension Plan. Hydro-Québec
was also created in an attempt to nationalize Québec's electric
companies. French-Canadians in Québec also adopted the new name 'Québécois', trying to create a separate identity from both the rest of Canada and France and establish themselves as a reformed province.
The Quiet Revolution was a period of unbridled economic and social development in Québec and Canada and paralleled similar developments in the West
in general. It was a byproduct of Canada's 20-year post-war expansion
and Québec's position as the leading province for more than a century
before and after Confederation. It witnessed particular changes to the built environment and social structures of Montreal,
Québec's leading city. The Quiet Revolution also extended beyond
Québec's borders by virtue of its influence on contemporary Canadian
politics. During the same era of renewed Quebecois nationalism, French Canadians made great inroads into both the structure and direction of the federal government and national policy.
Origins
The hill leading to Place d'Armes in Montreal, an important historic site of French Canada
The 1950s tenure of Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis epitomized the conservative ideal of a religiously and culturally pure Québec, and became known among liberals as the Grande Noirceur (Great Darkness), although the Richard Riot of 1955 may have signaled growing submerged forces.Soon after Duplessis' death, the June 1960 provincial election installed the Liberal provincial government of Jean Lesage, and the Quiet Revolution began.
Prior to the 1960s, the government of Québec was controlled by the conservative Duplessis, leader of the Union Nationale
party. Not all the Catholic Church supported Duplessis - some Catholic
unions and members of the clergy criticized him, including Montreal
Archbishop Joseph Charbonneau - but the bulk of the small-town and rural clergy supported him. Some quoted the Union Nationale slogan Le ciel est bleu, l'enfer est rouge
(The sky (Heaven) is blue, Hell is red) as a reference to the colours
of the Union Nationale (blue) and the Liberals (red), the latter accused
often of being pro-communist.[citation needed]Radio-Canada, the newspaper Le Devoir and political journal Cité Libre were intellectual forums for critics of the Duplessis Government.
Prior to the Quiet Revolution, the province's natural resources were developed mainly by foreign investors, such as the US-based Iron Ore Company of Canada. In the spring of 1949, a group of 5,000 asbestos miners went on strike
for three months against a foreign corporation. They were supported by
Monsignor Charbonneau (Bishop of Montreal), the Québécois nationalist
newspaper Le Devoir, and a small group of intellectuals. Until the second half of the 20th century, the majority of Francophone Québec workers lived below the poverty line, and Francophones did not join the executive ranks of the businesses of their own province. Political activist and singer Félix Leclerc wrote: "Our people are the waterboys of their own country."
In many ways, Duplessis's death in 1959, quickly followed by the sudden death of his successor Paul Sauvé, triggered the Quiet Revolution. The Liberal Party, led by Jean Lesage and campaigning under the slogans Il faut que ça change ("Things have to change") and Maîtres chez nous ("Masters of our own house", a phrase coined by Le Devoir editor André Laurendeau), was voted into power within a year of Duplessis's death.
It is generally accepted that the revolution ended before the October Crisis
of 1970, but Québec society has continued to change dramatically since
then, notably with the rise of the sovereignty movement, evidenced by
the election of the sovereignist Parti Québécois (first in 1976 by René Lévesque), the formation of a sovereignist political party representing Québec on the federal level, the Bloc Québécois (founded in 1991 by Lucien Bouchard), as well as the 1980 and 1995 sovereignty referendums. Some scholars argue that the rise of the Québec sovereignty movement during the 1970s is also part of this period.
Secularization and education
The Canadian Constitution of 1867
made education an area of provincial responsibility. Québec set up a
Ministry of Public Instruction in 1868 but abolished it in 1875 under
pressure from the Catholic Church. The clergy believed it would be able
to provide appropriate teaching to young people and that the province
should not interfere. By the early 1960s, there were more than 1,500
school boards, each responsible for its own programs, textbooks and the
recognition of diplomas according to its own criteria.
In addition, until the Quiet Revolution, higher education was
accessible to only a minority of French Canadians because of the
generally low level of formal education and the expense involved. Moreover, secondary schools had placed a lot more emphasis on the liberal arts and soft sciences than the hard sciences.
Following World War II,
while most of the United States and Canada was enjoying a long period
of prosperity and modernization, economic growth was slower in Québec.
The level of formal schooling among French-Canadians was quite low:
only 13% finished grade 11, as opposed to 36% of English Canadians. One
of the most scathing attacks on the educational system was levelled by
Brother Jean-Paul Desbiens, writing under the pseudonym of Frère Untel. The publication of his book Les insolences du Frère Untel
(1960) quickly sold over 100,000 copies and has come to be recognized
as having important impact on the beginning of the Quiet Revolution.
Alphonse-Marie Parent
presided over a commission established in 1961 to study the education
system and bring forth recommendations, which eventually led to the
adoption of several reforms, the most important of which was
secularization of the education system. In 1964 a Ministry of Education was established with Paul Gérin-Lajoie appointed the first Minister of Education since 1875.
Although schools maintained their Catholic or Protestant character, in
practice they became secular institutions. Reforms included: the age for
compulsory schooling was raised from 14 to 16, free schooling until the
11th grade, school boards were reorganized, school curricula were
standardized, and classical colleges were replaced with CEGEPs (publicly funded pre‑university colleges) in 1965, then the Université du Québec network in 1969—both as an effort to improve access to higher education, geographically and financially.
Additionally, more emphasis was placed on the hard sciences, and there
was now work for the Québécois who had previously needed to leave the
province in order to find jobs in their preferred fields. For example, the opening of Hydro-Québec meant that skilled engineers needed to be hired.
Also during this period the Ministry of Social Affairs was created, which in June 1985 became the Ministry of Health and Social Services, responsible for the administration of health and social services in the province.
The Quiet Revolution combined declericalization with the dramatic reforms of Vatican II.
There was a dramatic change in the role of nuns, which previously had
attracted 2–3% of Québec's young women. Many left the convent while very
few young women entered. The Provincial government took over the nuns'
traditional role as provider of many of Québéc's educational and social
services. Often ex-nuns continued the same roles in civilian dress; and
for the first time men started entering the teaching profession.
Also during the time of the Quiet Revolution, Quebec experienced a large drop in the total fertility rate
(known as TFR: the lifetime average number of live births per woman of
child-bearing age) falling from 3.8 in 1960 to 1.9 in 1970.
According to a study commissioned in 2007 by The Québec Ministry of
Families, Seniors and Status of Women on possible ways to address
problems related to a by then even lower TFR (1.6) "Starting in 1960,
Québec experienced a drop in fertility that was so sharp and rapid, it
was almost unparalleled in the developed countries."
In the 2003 article "Where Have All the Children Gone?", published in the academic journal Canadian Studies in Population
by Professor Catherine Krull of Queen's University and Professor Frank
Trovato of The University of Alberta, point to the decline in influence
of the Roman Catholic Church over the lives of French-Canadians as one
of the causes of the great reduction in the TFR during the Quiet
Revolution.
Per Professor Claude Belanger of Montreal's Marianopolis College the
loss of influence of the RC Church and subsequent abandonment of long
adhered to Church teachings concerning procreation was a key factor in
Quebec going from having the highest provincial birth rate in 1960 to
the lowest in 1970.
Seeking a mandate for its most daring reform, the nationalization of the province's electric companies under Hydro-Québec, the Liberal Party called for a new election in 1962. The Liberal party was returned to power with an increased majority in the Legislative Assembly of Québec and within six months, René Lévesque,
Minister of Natural Resources, enacted his plans for Hydro-Québec. The
Hydro-Québec project grew to become an important symbol in Québec. It
demonstrated the strength and initiative of the Québec government and
was a symbol of the ingenuity of Québécois in their capability to
complete such an ambitious project.
The original Hydro-Québec project ushered in an era of "megaprojects"
that would continue until 1984, seeing Québéc's hydroelectric network
grow and become a strong pillar of the province.
Today, Hydro-Québec remains a crucial element to the Québec economy,
with annual revenues of $12.7 billion Canadian dollars, $1.1 billion
going directly into the province's coffers.
Hydro-Québec headquarters in Montréal
More public institutions were created to follow through with the
desire to increase the province's economic autonomy. The public
companies SIDBEC (iron and steel), SOQUEM (mining), REXFOR (forestry)
and SOQUIP (petroleum) were created to exploit the province's natural
resources. This was a massive shift away from the Duplessis era in which
Québec's abundant natural resources were hardly utilized. Duplessis'
policy was to sell off untransformed natural resources at bargain prices
in order to create more employment in Québec's regions. This strategy,
however, proved weak as Québec's natural resources were exploited for
little profit.
The shift in mentality of the Quiet Revolution allowed Québec to gain
further financial autonomy by accessing this area of the economy which,
as is evidenced by Hydro-Québec, is extremely profitable. The Société générale de financement
(General financing corporation) was created in 1962 to encourage
Québécois to invest in their economic future and to increase the
profitability of small companies. In 1963, in conjunction with the Canada Pension Plan the government of Canada authorized the province to create its own Régie des Rentes du Québec (RRQ, Québec Pension Plan); universal contributions came into effect in 1966. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
(CDPQ, Québec Deposit and Investment Fund) was created in 1965 to
manage the considerable revenues generated by the RRQ and to provide the
capital necessary for various projects in the public and private
sectors.
A new labour code (Code du Travail) was adopted in 1964.
It made unionizing much easier and gave public employees the right to
strike. It was during the same year that the Code Civil (Civil Code) was modified to recognize the legal equality of spouses. In case of divorce, the rules for administering the Divorce Act were retained using Québéc's old community propertymatrimonial regime until 1980, when new legislation brought an automatic equal division of certain basic family assets between spouses.
Nationalism
The
societal and economic innovations of the Quiet Revolution, which
empowered Québec society, emboldened certain nationalists to push for
political independence.
While visiting Montreal for Expo 67, General Charles de Gaulle proclaimed Vive le Québec libre! in a speech at Montreal City Hall, which gave the Québec independence movement further public credibility. In 1968, the sovereigntistParti Québécois was created, with René Lévesque as its leader. A small faction of Marxist sovereignists began terrorist actions as the Front de libération du Québec, the zenith of their activities being the 1970 October Crisis, during which British diplomat James Cross as well as Labour Minister Pierre Laporte were both kidnapped by FLQ cells, with Laporte eventually being killed.
The Parti Québécois twice led the Québécois people through unsuccessful referendums, the first in 1980 on the question of political sovereignty with economic association to Canada (also known as sovereignty association), and the second in 1995 on full sovereignty.
In 1977, during their first term in office, the Parti Québécois enacted the Charter of the French Language,
known more commonly as Bill 101, whose goal is to protect the French
language by making it the language of business in Québec, as well as
restricting the use of English on signs. The bill also restricted the
eligibility for elementary and high school students to attend school in
English, allowing this only for children of parents who had studied in
English in Québec. Children may also be eligible for English education
if their parents or grandparents received a certain amount of English
education outside of the province (ex. another Canadian province). Once a
child has been permitted to attend an English primary or high school,
the remaining children in that family are also granted access. This bill still stands today, although many reforms have been made in an attempt to make it less harsh.
Historiography
Several
historians have studied the Quiet Revolution, presenting somewhat
different interpretations of the same basic facts. For example,
Cuccioletta and Lubin raised the question of whether it was an
unexpected revolution or an inevitable evolution of society. Behiels
asked, how important are economic factors such as outside control of
Québec's finance and industry? Was the motivating force one of
liberalism or one of nationalism? Gauvrea raised the issues of religious factors, and of the changes going on inside the Catholic Church. Seljak felt that the Catholic Church could have responded with a more vocal opposition.
A revolution or a natural course of action?
Modern
Québec historians have brought some nuance to the importance of the
Quiet Revolution. Though the improvements made to Québec society during
this era make it seem like an extremely innovative period, it has been
posited that these changes follow a logical revolutionary movement
occurring throughout North America in the 1960s. Noted Québec historian Jacques Rouillard [fr] took this revisionist
stance in arguing that the Quiet Revolution may have accelerated the
natural evolution of Quebec’s francophone society rather than having
turned it on its head.
Several arguments support this view. From an economic
perspective, Quebec’s manufacturing sector had seen important growth
since the Industrial Revolution. Buoyed by significant manufacturing demand during World War I and World War II, the Québec economy was already expanding before the events of the Quiet Revolution.
Rouillard also argues that traditional portrayals of the Quiet Revolution falsely depict it as the rise of Liberalism in Québec. He notes the popularity enjoyed by federal Liberal Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier as well as the Premiership of Adélard Godbout
as examples of Québec Liberalism prior to the events of the Quiet
Revolution. The Godbout administration was extremely innovative. Its
notable achievements include nationalizing the electricity distribution
network of the city of Montreal, granting universal suffrage,
instituting mandatory schooling until the age of 14 and establishing
various social programs in Québec.
The perception of the Quiet Revolution as a great upheaval in
Québec society persists, but the revisionist argument that describes
this period as a natural continuation of innovations already occurring
in Québec cannot be omitted from any discussion on the merits of the
Quiet Revolution.
The historiography of the period has been notably explored by Ronald
Rudin, who describes the legacy of the Lesage years in the depiction of
what preceded them.
Though criticized as apologists for Duplessis, Robert Rumilly and
Conrad Black did add complexity to the narrative of neo-nationalists by
contesting the concept of a "Grande Noirceur," the idea that Duplessis's
tenure in office was one of reactionary policies and politics.
Dale Thomson, for his part, noted that Jean Lesage, far from seeking to
dismantle the traditional order, negotiated a transition with (and
sought to accommodate) Québéc's Catholic Church.
Several scholars have lately sought to mediate the neo-nationalist and
revisionist schools by looking at grassroots Catholic activism and the
Church's involvement in policy-making.
Federal politics
Politics at the federal level were also in flux. In 1957, the federal government passed the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act. This was, effectively, the beginning of a pan-Canadian system of public health insurance. In 1961, Prime Minister Diefenbaker instituted the National Hospital Insurance Plan, the first public health insurance plan adhered to by all the provinces. In 1966, the National Medicare program was created.
Federal politics were further influenced by the election of Pierre Elliot Trudeau in 1968.
The rise to power of arguably Canada's most influential Prime Minister
was unique in Canadian politics. The charisma and charm he displayed
throughout his whirlwind campaign swept up much of the country in what
would be referred to as Trudeaumania. Before the end of the 1960s, Trudeau would pass the Official Languages Act (1969), which aimed to ensure that all federal government services were available in both of Canada's official languages. By the end of the 1960s, Trudeau had also passed legislation decriminalizing homosexuality and certain types of abortion.
Municipal politics
Montreal municipal politics were also going through an important upheaval. Jean Drapeau became Montreal mayor on October 24, 1960.
Within the first few years of his tenure, Drapeau oversaw a series of
infrastructure projects, including the expansion of Dorval airport (now Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport), the opening of the Champlain bridge and the renaissance of Old Montreal. He also oversaw the construction and inauguration of Place des Arts. Drapeau was also instrumental in the construction of the Montreal metro system, which was inaugurated on October 14, 1966. Under Drapeau, Montreal was awarded the 1967 International and Universal Exposition (Expo 67), whose construction he oversaw. He was also one of the key politicians responsible for National League of baseball granting Montreal a franchise, the now-defunct Montreal Expos. Another of Drapeau's major projects was obtaining and holding the 1976 Summer Olympics.
The heroic figure of Achilles, a character in stories such as the ancient Greek work the Iliad, has been known for his idealism as expressed through his purposeful courage and strong sense of personal honor.
An ideal is a principle or value that an entity actively pursues as a goal and holds above other concerns perceived as being less meaningful. Terms relating to the general belief in ideals include ethical idealism, moral idealism, and principled idealism. An ethical idealist, moral idealist, principled idealist or simply an idealist insists on holding onto ideals even at a considerable cost as a consequence of holding such a belief.
There is an inherent relationship between the terms "ideal" and "ethical" in the context of ethics, noted by Philosopher Rushworth Kidder
who stated that "standard definitions of ethics have typically included
such phrases as 'the science of the ideal human character". When based in religious traditions or fundamentally secular, an entity's relative prioritization of ideals often serves to indicate the extent of that entity's moral dedication.
A variety of different issues in analyzing idealistic ethics exists. Scholar Terry Eagleton
has opined that the practical plausibility of particular ideals winds
up being inverse to their intellectual legitimacy. American Philosopher Richard Rorty has criticized the concept of unchanging ideals existing somewhat separately from human nature in the first place. In the political context, scholar Gerald Gaus
has argued that particular strains of idealism cause individuals to
wish for impossible political perfection and thus lose their sense of
what constituents practical policy advocacy, ideals getting in the way
of incremental yet meaningful progress.
Background and history
Applications of different terminology
The
term "idealism" and the related labeling, whether self-applied or
otherwise, of individuals and/or groups as being "idealistic" or against
such viewpoints has a certain complexity to it. In the sense of metaphysical thought, "idealism"
is generally described as centering around a particular view of
objective reality versus the perception of reality; the question of
whether or not potential knowledge
exists independently to humanity or whether such knowledge is solely
tied to experiences in the mind gets debated. Even within that
particular intellectual sphere, the stamp of "idealist" as applied to
particular philosophers, with them often possessing rather nuanced views, attracts considerable controversy.
The term "ideal" has also been applied to organizations like independent churches to social activist groups to political parties to nation states and more. An entity's ideals usually function as a way to set firm guidelines for decision making, with the possibility of having to sacrifice and undergo loss being in the background. While ideals constitute fuzzy concepts
without that clear-cut a definition, they remain an influential part
not just of personal choice but of larger, civilization-wide social
direction. Ideals as a topic receive both scholarly and layman
discussion within a variety of fields including philosophy both historically and more recently.
In colloquial language,
the term "ideal" is often applied loosely, with varying circumstances
getting described as such in highly different contexts. For instance, in
cooking
the descriptions of certain ingredient portions, heating temperatures,
preparation times, and the like are often labeled as "ideal" or
otherwise. Such uses of the term are often distinct from the historical
and social concept of having an "ethical ideal" as such.
Definitions and justifications
Ancient Greek philosopher Plato argued that ideals exist in a kind of independence from humanity such that reason discovers the principles rather than simply creates them.
American scholar Nicholas Rescher
has drawn upon ancient philosophy to state that the metaphysical nature
of ideals gives them a particular status as "useful fictions" in terms
of their special existence, writing in his book Ethical Idealism: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Function of Ideals,
"The 'reality' of an ideal lies not
in its substantive realization in some separate domain but in its
formative impetus upon human thought and action in this imperfect world.
The object at issue with an ideal does not, and cannot, exist as
such. What does, however, exist is the idea of such an object.
Existing, as it must, in thought alone (in the manner appropriate to
ideas), it exerts a powerful[ly] organizing and motivating force on our
thinking, providing at once a standard of appraisal and [also] a
stimulus to action."
Nonetheless, multiple thinkers have asserted that ideals as such
constitute things that ought to be said to exist in the real world,
having a substance partly to the same extent as flesh and blood people
and similar concrete entities. A prominent example of this certain
viewpoint is the iconic Greek philosopher Plato. To him, ideals represent self-contained objects existing in their own domain that humanity discovered through reason
rather than invented out of whole cloth for narrow benefit. Thus, while
existing in relation to the human mind, ideals still possess a certain
kind of metaphysical independence according to Plato.
With respect to specific definitions, U.S. philosopher Ralph Barton Perry has defined idealistic morality as being the result of a particular viewpoint about knowledge itself, writing in his book The Moral Economy,
"Moral idealism means to interpret
life consistently with ethical, scientific, and metaphysical truth. It
endeavors to justify the maximum of hope, without compromising or
confusing any enlightenment judgement of truth. In this it is, I think,
not only consistent with the spirit of a liberal and rational age but
also with the primary motive of religion. There can be no religion...
without an open and candid mind as well as an indomitable purpose."
Focusing on the practical nature of moral choices, recent scholarly analysis in journals such as Academia Revista Latinoamerica de Administracion have framed definitions in terms of social decision making, one study stating,
"Idealism concerns the welfare of
others. On one hand, a low idealist assumes that harming others is not
always avoidable and that sometimes harm may be necessary to produce
good[.] [...] On the other hand, a high idealist assumes that harming
others
is always avoidable and that it is unethical to have to choose between
the lesser of two evils. In other words, for a high idealist, morality
always results from not harming others".
Ethical idealism has often defined either in relative comparison to or in direct contradiction to the doctrine of moral relativism.
The latter concept has been associated with a philosophical skepticism
in which an individual questions the value of commonly held cultural
principles. A strongly relativist person will, scholars have stated,
judge morality according to particular circumstances. Individuals with
stridently idealistic beliefs and little sense of relativism have been
known as "absolutists" while those with principles seeking to synthesize
those two concepts have been known as "situationists".
Historical development and recent analysis
Ideals from antiquity to the Age of Reason
Ancient cynics such as Diogenes dismissed optimistic views of human nature
as baseless given common brutality, with the moral ideals of the time
receiving skepticism as he sought his own internal compass.
In the wider context of ethics, the very terms "ethical" and "ideal" have been inherently tied. Philosopher Rushworth Kidder
has stated that "standard definitions of ethics have typically included
such phrases as 'the science of the ideal human character'". Thus, ideals have been the topic of discussion and debate since the beginnings of organized human civilization. The types of ideals dealt with during the history of philosophy
have varied widely over the many centuries, many conceptions existing
of what moral idealism actually is and how it gets applied in actual
life experiences.
From the far distant history
to today, multiple philosophers have remarked that human beings appear
to, by instinct, behave in a matter with few if any ideals and even
general morals of whatever kind. The works of British thinker David Hume, for instance, explicitly declared people to be inherent "slaves" to their passions.
When articulating a particularly nuanced theory of morality, Hume's
writings labeled it folly to emphasize what people hopefully wish to
achieve and additionally argued that enforcing ideals without proper
grounding in practical, already existing mores undermines society
itself.
Cynics of the ancient world frequently referred to humanity in general as not only not perfectible but fundamentally depraved. The historical Greek figure of Diogenes,
while arguing that some individuals could through great effort achieve
some kind of a moral dignity, was a prominent example in his dismissal
of the values common in his day. He sought his own path based on a
particular set of ideals that involved begging on the streets, living in
a barrel, and wearing rags.
In both Jewish ethics and later Christian ethics,
however, advocacy for a stridently idealistic view of the world, in
which principles get held over personal convenience and even otherwise
perfectly logical expectations, has attracted praise. Golden rule based moral standards have involved restrictions such as holding back the quest for vengeance
by the wronged such that punishment only gets applied in a limited,
specific fashion, this example being later evaluated as the tit-for-tat strategy in game theory. In terms of Christianity, the teachings of the Gospels have constituted an extension of the golden rule; individuals, under Jesus'
example, have gotten called to hold to the ideal of treating other
people even better than they rationally expect to be treated back.
In the context of the various religious movements of the 1st and 2nd century in the Roman Empire,
the ideals of Christian thinking constituted a radical break with the
ethical doctrines that had been advocated by those in power. Rejecting
views of the upper classes, both during the empire's time and previously
in Greco-Roman civilization, the rising Christian community set forth
clear-cut principles based on narratives such as the Sermon on the Mount, which was included in the Gospel of Matthew. Specifically, Jesus' exhortations for his followers to "turn the other cheek"
as well to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" and
practice other idealistic behaviors established a general view
emphasizing spiritual standards over material concerns.
Despite the degree that Christian viewpoints contradicted Roman traditions, early Christianity
spread throughout the Empire and became a particularly robust force in
the empire's society by the 4th century. Reasons for the appeal included
not only the idealistic messages but also the similarity between the
belief system and previously popular mystery cults. Finally, emperor Theodosius the Great made Christianity the official religion of the entire realm.
While Western nations
widely retained the influences of Jewish and Christian morality over
multiple centuries, in practical terms a great many powerful rulers and
prominent thinkers both before and after the fall of the Roman Empire
pushed back on higher notions of idealistic ethics. Many did so based
on little other than expediency. However, whether explicitly in words or
implicitly through deeds, more cynical figures have counter-argued from
points of view that can broadly be labeled as "moral relativism".
As the arguments have gone, human beings have been little more than
crude matter and cannot reasonably be held to act based in any sort of
larger principle; survival has remained people's core instinct such that
civilization, through relativist eyes, functions as a thin veneer over
base instincts.
Multiple philosophers have argued in favor of particular types of idealism as well for years. The course of the "Age of Enlightenment"
(also known as the "Age of Reason") from the 17th to the 19th
centuries, being a movement that in large part centered around the
application of rationality-based principles such as the scientific method upon human nature,
caused increased interest in ethical philosophy as a field of study.
Notions of "benevolence" attracted widespread attention in terms of governance, with leaders exhorted to act based on idealistic principles and to particularly champion causes such as the facilitating of the arts, increased educational efforts, effective stewardship of national resources, and so on. This movement increased trends away from absolute monarchy and dictatorship towards that of constitutional monarchy and republican government.
The scientifically based, forward thinking viewpoint about human nature
when applied to socio-political organization became later known as "classical liberalism".
Philosopher John Locke, a prominent figure of the Enlightenment era,
articulated a vision of the individual and collective pursuit of ideals
arising from the logical study and analysis of the state of nature.
In terms of broader discussions on ethics, many classical Enlightenment thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes and John Locke have famously argued that strong moral standards on individual choice exist based upon standards of rationality that can be found through logical analysis
by reasonable observers. Specifically, instrumental principles based on
satisfying one's desires made up the basis for morality through Hobbes'
approach. External principles existing in the discoverable state of
nature outside of human experience that became possible to tease out due
to personal study constituted Locke's theoretical background for ideals
and broader ethics.
With respect to social order, Locke's highly influential writings
applied rational principles to governance in support of the doctrine of
social contract theory, which permeated Enlightenment discussions about the best form of organizing a country. Locke's works such as the Two Treatises of Government
set forth an ethical framework in which rational individuals establish a
government in order to guarantee their fundamental rights and possess
the understanding that they not only can but should alter said
government when rational application of the fair-minded "rule of law" has broken down. Thus, Locke labeled fundamental change as a natural consequence of when liberty no longer receives protection. He criticized competing theories such as the divine right of kings, which the thinker viewed as folly.
In terms of individual thinking on principles, Locke never wrote a
single work laying down in depth his conceptual understanding of ethics
and morality. However, Lockean thought as described in various writings
have emphasized holding to prominent ideals about human behavior in
terms of the rational capacity for good, a particular topic of Locke's
concern having been the power of education. Locke wrote of its
importance within the pages of Some Thoughts Concerning Education.
Outlining the best way to rear children in his eyes, Lockean arguments
stressed that virtuous actions by adults arose as a direct result of the
habits of body and mind taught during youth by forward thinking
instructors.
Locke wrote in his work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
dividing rational understanding into three inherent areas of scope, the
philosopher defining the second as "practica" and describing it as,
"The skill of right applying our
own powers and actions, for the attainment of things good and useful.
The most considerable... is ethics, which is the seeking out those rules
and measures of human actions, which lead to happiness, and the means
to practise them. The end of this is not bare speculation and the
knowledge of truth; but right, and a conduct suitable to it."
Thinker Immanuel Kant's views on idealistic morality aligned the human ethical experience with that of rationality and the greater world, the philosopher labeling immorality not only wrong on principle but illogical.
German philosopher Immanuel Kant's particular view of human nature and intellectual inquiry, later summed up under the banner of "Kantianism", stressed the inherent power of logical thinking in terms of moral analysis. Kant's advocacy for the "categorical imperative",
a doctrine through which every individual choice has to be made with
the consideration of the decider that it ought to be a universally held
maxim, took place in the broader context of his metaphysical views. In
Kant's writings, defiance of higher idealistic principles was not only
wrong in a practical sense but in a fundamentally rational and thus
moral sense as well.
The philosopher's metaphysics tied closely with his
socio-political views and belief in evolutionary advancement, Kant
writing in The Critique of Pure Reason in detail,
"What the highest level might be at
which humanity may have to come to rest, and how great a gulf may still
be left between the idea [of perfection] and its realization, are
questions which no one can, or ought to answer. For the matter depends
upon freedom; and it is in the very nature of freedom to pass beyond any
and every specified limit."
Summing up Kant's views on ideals specifically in context, scholar
Frederick P. Van De Pitte has written about the primacy of rationality
to the philosopher, Pitte remarking,
"Kant realized that man's rational
capacity alone is not sufficient to constitute his dignity and elevate
him above the brutes. If reason only enables him to do for himself what
instinct does for the animal, then it would indicate for man no higher
aim or destiny than that of the brute but only a different way of
attaining the same end. However, reason is man's most essential
attribute because it is the means by which a truly distinctive dimension
is made possible for him. Reason, that is, reflective awareness, makes
it possible to distinguish between good and bad, and thus morality can
be made the ruling purpose of life. Because man can consider an array of
possibilities, and which among them is the most desirable, he can
strive to make himself and his world into a realization of his ideals."
Broadly speaking, Western philosophy in terms of its discussion of
ideals largely takes place within the framework of Enlightenment
thinking, with figures such as the aforementioned Hobbes, Kant, and
Locke dominating debate. In the shadow of material such as the United Nation'sUniversal Declaration of Human Rights, itself an evolution from the earlier American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States as well as similar such documents in the history of human rights, many theorizing academics of the 19th century and the 20th century have set forth an optimistic
view in which even radically different cultures possess shared ethical
values common to humanity in general that both nations and individuals
can aspire towards. This idealism has found particular emphasis in
discussions of socio-political issues.
Through this moralistic lens, all people by nature of their mere existence have been thought to have been born inherently good, inherently equal, and inherently free. This doctrine has been seen to hold all bigotry, discrimination, and prejudice
as inherently wrong not only ethically but logically as well. Although
varying greatly in application based on the social context, the
framework of the age of reason has overall continued to represent the
intellectual stream that has fed the waters of more recent discussions.
A defining inflection point of this trend has been the experience of World War II and the Holocaust. The historical memory has been argued to have created a sort of dualistic approach to ideology in which capitalisticdemocracy, centered around classical liberalism, gets inherently pitted forever in struggle with tyrannies, centered around the stratification of various groups over others and mass misery. In the aftermath of the end of the Cold War,
studies upon moral idealism have often asked if Enlightenment
viewpoints face an inherent intellectual challenge that the doctrines
cannot eventually overcome.[]
Working in the context of the rise of fascism during the early 20th century, Ernst Cassirer stalwartly defended Enlightenment idealism, stating that progress tended to "self-liberation".
Examples of specific post-Enlightenment philosophers who have
garnered notice for their defense of the movement's ideals include Ernst Cassirer. The thinker's advocacy for liberal democracy at a time when the rise of fascism and other doctrines faced an environment that found his views unfashionable. A German Jew who had staunchly supported the Weimar Republic in power before the Nazi Party's
takeover and fled for his family's own safety, Cassirer wrote
philosophical investigations of art, language, myth, and science.
In terms of human progress, Cassierer remarked that "what is truly
permanent in human nature is not any condition in which it once existed
and from which it has fallen; rather it is the goal for which and toward
which it moves."
This theories merged the study of human cultures and particularly their
symbols with higher philosophy, Cassierer strongly defending the path
of history as that of "man's progressive self-liberation."
With the advent of the 21st century, philosophizers have debated
the rapid evolution of different societies, particularly given advancing
technology, and the seeming acceptance of egalitarian values previously thought of as radical or undesirable by center-left, moderate, and center-right individuals. The conflict between these people, many of them belonging to younger generations such as the Millennials, and those political extremists of the global far-right movement, the social trend often called "new nationalism", has defined new distinctions between what it means to be a "moral idealist". As well, the question of the fundamental biological advancement of humanity itself has attracted much attention. What a transhuman or even posthuman individual would possess terms of ideals in contrast with regular human beings has remained an open question.
In the broadest sense, the question of whether or not humanity as
a whole has fundamentally progressed towards a set of moral ideals over
the past multiple centuries has never achieved any particular
consensus. Examples of philosophers who argue partially in support of
the notion include the American thinker Richard Rorty,
a figure who has criticized the very concept of unchanging ethical
principles set forth in inherent nature while still lauding general
social progress.
In contrast, multiple scholars concerned with issues such as global climate change and potential use of weapons of mass destruction in future warfare have lamented particular technological advancements
and related alterations in broader social culture, the thinkers arguing
that fundamental moral progress has truly not occurred given forms of
increasing danger to humanity. The evolution of particular scientific
areas such as artificial intelligence research has generated concerns about long-term threats and the possibility of eventual human extinction. Critical views have also been set forth by various religious philosophers who have argued that humanity remains full of sin
in its general behavior, this trend perhaps even getting worse as time
has passed. Multiple secular thinkers have made similar comments about
the proliferation of moral breakdown, particularly in the context of the
rise of post-factual politics and the related issue of politicization.
A contrasting approach arising in the 20th century and continuing to receive notice is that of prominent Roman Catholic figure Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
He famously predicted that humanity will eventually advance in terms of
not just scientific development through natural and engineered biological evolution but also idealistic morality to a sort of final oneness regarded by him as the 'Omega Point',
a mode of existence taking place not only without hatred, pain, and
misery but with perfect collective action and consciousness. Known as
the "Catholic Darwin", his view of evolutionary advancement came out of a
religious context through which he identified humanity's final state
with Jesus Christ as the "Logos" or sacred "Word". To Chardin, the power of love has constituted a sort of elemental drive as strong as that of fire and other natural forces. A geologist, paleontologist, and Jesuit priest, Chardin was later described by a Cyclopedia of World Authors
volume as having "combined his scientific beliefs and Christian
convictions in an idealistic [and] evolutionary vision of the universe."
"It's the great vision that later
Teilhard de Chardin... had: At the end we will have a true cosmic
liturgy, where the cosmos becomes a living host. Let's pray to the Lord
that he help us be priests in this sense, to help in the transformation
of the world in adoration of God, beginning with ourselves."
Debates and discussions involving ethical theory
In applied ethics
The specific philosophical school known as "applied ethics"
has frequently involved discussion over ideals and the desirability of
holding to them or abandoning them, depending on the context. In some
theories of applied ethics, relative importance has gotten assigned to
certain social preferences over others as a way to resolve disputes effectively. In analysis of legal theory, for instance, judges have been sometimes called on to resolve the balance between the ideal of truth, which would likely advise hearing out all evidence, and the ideal of broader social equality,
which would likely advise seeking to restore goodwill between
individuals regardless of specific findings during a particular case.
Said judges have also been required to consider the principle of the right to a speedy trial as well, which places limits on the previous two ideals given the time involved in ferreting out details.
In an August 2005 address, philosopher Richard Rorty
remarked upon the "moral idealism common to Platonism, Judaism, and
Christianity" and the related notion of strictly specified principles
through the lens of applied ethics, asserting to a group of business
professionals,
"[I]ndividuals become aware of more
alternatives, and therefore wiser, as they grow older. The human race
as a whole has become wiser as history has moved along. The source of
these new alternatives is the human imagination. It is the ability to
come up with new ideas, rather than the ability to get in touch with
unchanging essences, that is the engine of moral progress."
In medical ethics
Academic specialists such as physician and scholar Matjaž Zwitter have raised concerns that inadequate preparation in medical school,
with instructors failing to teach challenges including having to work
inside substandard facilities and facing difficult time restrictions,
set young professionals up to have their idealism drained quickly when
they begin real practice. This, the argument has gone, causes major
issues in terms of medical ethics.
Individual physicians possibly have faced unfair burdens due to general
issues with national healthcare systems getting placed onto their
shoulders, with this making their idealistic views falter even more.
Fading idealism has been cited as a contributor to the serious issue of burnout among medical professionals.
In secular ethics
With the widespread movement away from traditional religious beliefs in both the Anglosphere and other nations during the 20th century and into the 21st century, the question of to what extent the ideals held by the irreligious owe a debt to particular faith groups has attracted much attention. Specifically, certain authors known as "new atheists" such as biologist Richard Dawkins and journalist Christopher Hitchens have argued that newly emerging forms of secular ethics
constitute an approach of people treating each other that is more
logical, just, and reasonable when seen as a rejoinder to previous forms
of "traditional values". At the same time, multiple thinkers have
advocated for moral relativism and a reduced or non-existent sense of
holding to previously well-promoted ideals as a direct result of their
wholesale rejection of religion. As well, scholars regardless of
personal faith background have commented about the complex nature of
ethics when taken from spiritual movements.
Idealistic appeals in practice
In conceptual and historical politics
Greek statesman Pericles' vision of Athenian democracy stressed a sense of what he saw as core ideals, particularly the intelligence and tolerance displayed by Athenians.
Ideals have played a role in politics for millennia. For example, iconic Greek statesman Pericles famously presented an ideal-based view of the Mediterranean world. In 431, shortly after the Peloponnesian War had started, Pericles' "Funeral Oration" made to commemorate fallen soldiers, described for posterity by the historian Thucydides, presented a view of Athens
and the city-state's broader civilization that emphasized a sense of
cleverness and open-mindedness that Pericles believed gave it the
strength to rise to different challenges. Other early historical figures known for appealing to ethical ideals in their oratory include Roman statesman Cato the Elder, the figure's commentary on Hellenized values leading to his moral appeal among supporters. In contrast to what he saw as decadence spreading into Rome and nearby areas from elsewhere, Cato articulated support for what he labeled as traditional Roman ethics.
Most political revolutions have drawn support from the mass appeal of a certain moral idealism in contrast to the doctrines of those holding power, having the various grievances with the status quo created from real or perceived misrule spark ethical debate. During the French Revolution, the rhetorical principles of "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" (English: "Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood") got raised to the status of clear-cut ideals; the new nation state
constituted a sort of grand experiment in what became in de facto and
later de jure a new religion. Many political movements in modern times
have centered themselves upon multiple ideals found to be mutually
reinforcing. Recent examples have included the peace movement and the broader opposition expressed worldwide to war in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as elsewhere.
In many cases current and historical, instances have popped up in
which proclaimed ideals simply weren't lived up to by various figures
while in office, despite claims made by the officials before taking
power and since attaining it. In British English,
politicians openly changing their opinions in defiance of previous
assertions about their ethics have been labeled as making a "u-turn". In
American English, similar individuals have been pejoratively called "flip-floppers". While different, the terms have meant the same thing.
Idealism in the context of politics has attracted criticism from multiple fronts. For instance, U.S. philosopher Gerald Gaus, the author of The Tyranny of the Ideal: Justice in a Diverse Society,
has prominently argued that an overriding emphasis on ideals causes
individuals to wish for impossible political perfection and thus lose
their sense of what constituents practical policy advocacy as well as
logical choices during elections.
Gaus has made other warnings such as cautioning that people can lose
their sense of how much has already been achieved and how well current
situations have become in certain circumstances. In general, Gaus has
advocated for compromise and incremental socio-political reform.
In traditional achievement
AthleteTerry Fox helped redefine the cultural image of disabled individuals in his native Canada and elsewhere, his charity work and upbeat attitude creating a reputation as an idealist and humanitarian.
In a less abstract sense, multiple famous private individuals have
been thought to embody certain ideals due to multiple factors such as
their courage, intelligence, personal endurance, and so on. Although existing in real life and thus being subject to complexities that philosophical thought experiments often don't feature, these moral examples
have established a link between dry intellectual principles and broader
issues found in regular people's decision making. Naturally, even the
famous have possessed diverse and multi-faceted traits. To get
considered representative of an ideal has usually constituted a
necessary simplification process; with only a few traits on prominent
display, some individuals have become easy archetypes which others have tried to mimic.
For instance, disabled athleteTerry Fox has been a prominent example of idealistic values. Known for his "Marathon of Hope", Fox's public running helped raise huge amounts for charity and spread awareness of the achievement possible among those possessing a handicap (in Fox's case, a lost leg due to cancer). An article from Maclean's has referred to him simply as: "The humanitarian, the athlete, the idealist." Within Fox's native Canada, his actions have earned him praise many years after his life ended, attracting commentary labeling him a "hero".
Fox finished second to politician Tommy Douglas in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program The Greatest Canadian, which the organization broadcast in 2004. Fox's iconic status has been attributed to his image as an ordinary person attempting a remarkable and inspirational feat. Aside from Fox's organization engaging in decade-spanning work
successfully raising funds for Canadian health, his foundation achieving
a total of over $750 million in donations as of 2018,
Fox's legacy additionally includes the promotion of social tolerance
and active inclusion between the broader society and those with
disabilities.
The athlete had optimistically aimed to motivate his nation enough to
raise a dollar from every single Canadian, and his organization managed
to greatly exceed that after his death.
Commenting in depth on Fox's set of ideals, Maclean's journalists Dan Robson and Catherine McIntyre have remarked,
"During those early days of his
'Marathon of Hope', as he covered the equivalent of a marathon a day,
very few people knew of the 21-year-old from Port Coquitlam, B.C. But
through the spring and summer of 1980, Fox captivated the nation with
his display of will and strength. And nearly four decades later, his
legacy continues to inspire people around the world. In what would be
the final stretch of his journey, Fox's daily progress through the
northern Ontario landscape was a moving picture of humility, dedication
and unrelenting courage... [blazing] a trail that inspired millions to
follow."
As well, multiple figures with a sincerely revered or otherwise
prominent status within religious and broadly spiritual beliefs have
been seen by individuals within those movements as representative of an
ethical idealism worth mimicking. In Islam, for instance, the life of the prophet Muhammad
has been held up as a comprehensive ideal for Muslims to study.
However, all of his words and deeds must be interpreted for believers
through the lens of his life's broader path and the larger religious
context, according to Islamic scholars. Multiple other prophets exist in
Islam and have been considered worth devoted study including Jesus and previous figures such as Abraham and Moses.
In the Jewish context, the term "mensch" has gotten frequently used to describe an individual of great worth due to his or her moral actions. Originally coming from Yiddish, the labeling of idealistic people as such has since become co-opted into regular use within the English language in certain areas. Different scholarly traditions within Judaism
have articulated theories of promoting moral behavior as well as more
generally seeking to improve both humanity and nature in order to meet
higher ideals; the process has been known as "tikkun olam", a term often translated to mean "repairing the world". In 2013, the surveying analysis group Pew Research Center polled American Jews what specific traits were essential to Jewish identity and found that 56% said "working for justice/equality".
Christian thinking has often encouraged regular people to highlight certain individuals as ethical examples. In both Eastern Orthodoxy and the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church, saints have received veneration due to their heroic deeds. Within Protestantism and other sects, similar practices have taken place in terms of holding up particular believers for widespread adulation.
Another famous example of a self-described "starry-eyed idealist" getting notice has been the reverend and television personalityFred Rogers. Known for hosting the iconic program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,
Rogers later stated that he started out "bursting with enthusiasm for
the potential I felt that television held not only for entertaining but
for helping people." His widely praised work in children's television for the American station PBS
over multiple decades involved tackling various issues unusual for a
program of his nature, including discussing with children the nature of divorce and helping them comprehend death. Variety has frankly remarked that Rodgers "attempted to change the world."
The host's personal image became a major part of his programming, with Rogers wearing a prominent hand-knittedcardigan and using a voice that maintained both a soft yet deliberate tone. This clothing additionally featured colors such as pink and lavender that have stereotypically perceived as un-masculine. Although slender as an adult, Rogers mentioned being overweight as a child and experiencing bullying that led him to reject expressions of prejudice throughout his later life.
"There’s just one person in the whole world like you," he stated at the
end of every episode, “and people can like you just the way you are."
Upon Rogers' death from cancer in 2003, the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to honor "his dedication to spreading kindness through example."
His idealistic approach to television hosting and broader advocacy for
social progress in the U.S. brought Rogers a variety of honorary degrees
and esteemed awards during his lifetime. The latter includes a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
in 2002. Rogers' commentary, particularly regarding that of how to best
respond to disasters and other moments of national crisis, has
continued to attract attention into the 21st century years after his
death. His life and legacy was detailed in the documentary filmWon't You Be My Neighbor?, which came out in 2018.
In united policy and international relations
Space exploration has been officially advocated for idealistic reasons, with astronauts such as John Glenn (pictured, in center, entering Friendship 7) later supporting the expansion of knowledge for its own sake.
With respect to government policy, appeals to idealistic values and
the sense of reaching beyond petty concerns have long been a part of
U.S. space exploration. For instance, the U.S. President's Science Advisory Committee published an "explanatory statement" in 1958 on the possible future of traveling through outer space using language later described by the Financial Times
as "a shot of pure idealism." The white paper cited multiple reasons to
enact a national space program. Yet it described as a core principle
"the compelling urge of man to explore and to discover, the thrust of
curiosity that leads men to try to go where no one has gone before".
In terms of the idealism behind space-based research and development, astronaut and U.S. politician John Glenn, known for his orbits of the Earth in 1962 inside the capsule Friendship 7, wrote in 1987,
"As we approach the 21st century, I
want to think we are outgrowing our need to exploit the resources of
our planet earth– or reaches of space- for power or profit. I'd like to
think that our explorations are more and more being directed toward
increasing our knowledge and mastery of the physical universe. I see in
the explorers of today men and women led by visions of wonders and
unexpected discoveries, driven by curiosity and a quest for knowledge,
and sustained by personal courage, faith[,] and strength."
Within American history, Theodore Roosevelt has been described by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin
as a champion of the common person and a determined advocate for social
progress, with a biography on him and his times being aimed by Goodwin
to "guide readers" to "bring... [the] country closer to its ancient
ideals". Having possessed an assertive personality with a striking
physical image, Roosevelt has also garnered attention as an icon of
American masculinity. Writers Robert Kagan and William Kristol
have labeled the statesman an "idealist of a different sort" such that,
unlike other leaders, Roosevelt "did not attempt to wish away the
realities of power... but insisted that the defenders of civilization
must exercise their power against civilization's opponents."
Roosevelt himself notably cited his belief in idealistic morality when giving his speech upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906, the statesman remarking,
"Moreover, and above all, let us
remember that words count only when they give expression to deeds, or
are to be translated into them... [M]any a tyrant has called it peace
when he has scourged honest protest into silence. Our words must be
judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use
practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must
advance towards it step by step, reasonably content so long as we do
actually make some progress in the right direction."
Fellow 20th century American leader Ronald Reagan's tenure as president of the U.S. began amidst a general atmosphere of malaise and uncertainty throughout the country's society. Yet the leader's deeply optimistic style managed to spread due to his advocacy for certain ideals. In 2005, journalist Jamie Wilson of The Guardian
stated that Reagan's "two terms as president heralded an era of
unprecedented economic growth and restored pride to a nation still
reeling from the" conflict in Vietnam. Historian John P. Diggins has written that, in contrast to other approaches set forth during the Cold War for policy experts, the moralistic "Reagan was an idealist who put more trust in words than in weapons." The Discovery Channel, surveying more than two million individuals in partnership with AOL, found Reagan to be the nation's greatest American in 2005.
In terms of 21st century America, The New York Times commented in a 2018 article about Barack Obama that the then ex-president possessed a "signature idealism". In terms of detailed analysis, professor Steven Sarson
wrote in 2018 that the statesman acts and speaks like "a half-way
utopian" that avoids "imposing prescriptive ideas" and thus admires
those of absolutist views and personal zealotry in the cause of social
advancement even while emphasizing with those individuals. Thus, Sarson
argued that Obama remained "idealistic" but "free of blinding visions"
given Obama's sense of practical compromise and willingness to tolerate
diverse opinions, expressing an "ecumenical" approach.
During his seminal speech titled A More Perfect Union, delivered in 2008 at the National Constitution Center,
then presidential candidate Obama took stock of his particular view of
the American experience and his own ethical idealism, commenting,
"[O]ur Constitution... had at is
very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution
that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union... [it] could
be and should be perfected over time. And yet words on a parchment
would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and
women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as
citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in
successive generations who were willing to do their part - through
protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil
war and civil disobedience and always at great risk- to narrow that gap
between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time."
With respect to European history, Konrad Adenauer has been regarded in academic analysis as one of the "Founding Fathers of Post-War Europe", with the statesman's sense of idealistic leadership reinvigorating West Germany after the chaos of World War II. Historian Golo Mann, using terminology borrowed from the philosopher Plato,
has labeled Adenauer a "cunning idealist" due to the statesman's
experiences providing a profound sense of human frailty coupled as well
with a gift for persuasion and a broad sense of always striving for the
right.
Being in the public eye during that same general era, Charles de
Gaulle's lifelong pursuit of "a certain idea of France" and sense of
socio-political ethics about the limits of power has also attracted
notice. Writing for the Houston Chronicle, columnist Robert Zaretsky has labeled de Gaulle "an idealist who understood the need for pragmatism." Known for his leadership in the French opposition to the Axis powers during the Second World War and his establishment of the new republican government that emerged after the conflict, thus gaining the reputation of having saved France, Kirkus Reviews has stated that the "uncompromising" and "incomparable character... acted as his country's conscience and rudder."
Within the central and south Americas, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia has received international acclaim for his idealistic efforts to end his country's long-running civil war.
After giving him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016, the Nobel committee's
official press release praised Santos' efforts, stating that the leader
"has consistently sought to move the peace process forward".
In a 2018 column, Santos wrote that "the negotiation process and our
efforts toward building a lasting peace constitute a true laboratory of
ideas, experimentation, and lessons learned that could help find
solutions in other parts of the world with similar or worse problems."
In response to the label of being "an idealist", he remarked that he has
"found that... it is always more popular to wage war than to seek
peace" generally and more specifically "always more popular and more
emotionally satisfying to pander to the extremes than to promote
thoughtful, pragmatic centrist positions."
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung
proposed that all individuals possessed a broad mental link to the rest
of humanity in the "collective subconsious", which through lived
experience provides people ideals.
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung
proposed, based on his analysis of his patients' reporting of their
struggles, a theory in which all individuals possesses within themselves
a kind of mental structure based on three layers: the "personal
conscious", the "personal subconscious", and the "collective
subconscious". The former represents higher thinking and rationality
while the latter two exist in a more shadowy realm that profoundly
influences peoples' minds, Jung wrote, even as said individuals cannot
reason through what happens subconsciously. The "collective" part of the
subconscious, Jung determined, "constitutes a common psychic substrate
of a suprapersonal nature which is present in every one of us" and comes
about through existence itself.
Thus, Jung stated that personal ideals arise out of abstract
concepts held collectively in the subconscious to later see specific
expression in the conscious based on particular contexts. He theorized
that individuals think in terms of certain character forms that he
labeled as "archetypes"
and associated prominent traits to those forms; for instance, the
archetypes of the "great mother" and "wise old man" embody the ideal of wisdom. As a result of all this, idealistic notions become seen in real-world people. The reverence of African leader Shaka Zulu on the continent has been cited as an example.
Demographic differences
Despite the fact that behavioral philosophies develop at a personal
level and get lived out as such, a variety of publications by multiple
scholars have found that the broader social context matters. The
cultural, historical, political, and religious background that
individuals experience greatly influences their sense of ethical
idealism, research has stated, such that aggregate views vary between
specific groups. Examples of studied categorizations include age, economic class, ethnicity, gender identity, nationality, and race. The general field of anthropology
has explored the evolution of differing societies and come to
contradictory conclusions about whether or not certain ideals can be
said to be innate to human existence and/or universal in terms of
rational advocacy.
Empirical research has demonstrated differences between men and women in terms of their relative approaches to moral idealism. Specifically, a 2012 report in the journal Academia Revista Latinoamerica de Administracion
stated that four scholarly studies published in the past had determined
that women appeared to be more idealistic than men while one had failed
to detect any significant differences between the sexes. Finding
similar results in its own analysis, the report speculated as a driving
cause the notion that women express more concern over interpersonal
relationships in comparison to men.
The aforementioned article additionally evaluated distinctions in
nationality and determined that significant differences exist between
the various peoples when it comes to idealism. In depth, the analysis of
Brazil, Chile, China, Estonia,
and the U.S. seemed to the researchers to have illustrated the effects
of contrasting social mores. Particularly strong notions of idealism
appeared "consistent with the moral philosophies in the traditional
Catholic and Islamic cultures" found in "Mediterranean ethics" as well
as "Middle Eastern regions", the authors of the study stated, while
nations with a considerably pragmatic and utilitarian social
undercurrent possess less idealistic people. The U.S. was cited as a
prominent example of the latter type of country.
As well, a 2008 report published in the Journal of Business Ethics
concluded that "levels of idealism... vary across regions of the world
in predictable ways" such that a nation's ethical "position predicted
that country's location on previously documented cultural dimensions,
such as individualism and avoidance of uncertainty".
Studies have additionally evaluated differences based on varying generations in terms of their ideals. The aforementioned Academia Revista Latinoamerica de Administracion
report concluded that particular gaps exist between age groups. Broadly
speaking, the older an individual was, the more importance they gave to
idealistic ethics according to the analysis.
Research has also found a positive relationship with beliefs in idealism and religiosity.
Ideals versus absolute or conditional obligations
Obligated social standards, such as the various norms around the medical professional and patient relationship, have been argued by thinkers as existing at a different plane than idealistic moral views.
Philosopher Norbert Paulo
has stated that, in common life, ideals as such appear to exist in
relation to general social obligations. Many of the latter concepts have
tended to appear, according to Paulo, absolute and essentially
mandatory while also existing in highly particular circumstances. For
instance, Paulo has written, physicians and nurses face a variety of ethical obligations imposed on them when treating their patients
that regular individuals encountering said patients randomly do not. He
had added that a continuum exists between clear-cut, widely held
obligations applied via social norms and vague ones only partially behold to cultural sanction.
Paulo's argument, thus, has concluded that idealist behavior
takes place at a behavioral and mental level above and beyond mere
social rules, such actions being "warranted" yet "not strictly required"
either while their optional nature sets them up as being
"praiseworthy". Ideals represent a method of putting into action an
individual's personal character
and its given traits such that, Paulo has argued, moral standards get
fleshed out beyond the rigid framework of mere obligations. One person's
altruistic caring for another generally has constituted a particular
example.
Ideals versus virtues
The line between an ideal and a virtue
has been difficult to access. Ideals have been argued to inherently
involve aspirations while virtues function as direct guides for assigned
conduct given social standards. Analysis has run into problems given that both entities are fuzzy concepts. In general, some philosophers have argued that an ideal usually constitutes something more inherent that one can make a habit
while virtues, instead, necessarily involve going above and beyond
regular decision making in order to actively strive for something. Thus,
these thinkers have stated, virtues inherently constitute a behavior
that's by its very nature highly difficult to turn into a regular
practice. Other philosophers have made the exact opposite argument and
seen virtues as fundamentally philosophically weaker entities than
ideals.
Given the complexity of putting ideals into practice, not to
mention resolving conflicts between them, many individuals have chosen
to narrowly pick a certain group of them and then harden them into
absolute dogma. Political theorist Bernard Crick has stated that a way to solve this dilemma
is to have ideals that themselves are descriptive of a generalized
process rather than a specific outcome, particularly when the latter is
hard to achieve.
Kant wrote in his work Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View pitting idealism against the enactment of personal vice, the philosopher arguing,
"Young man! Deny yourself
satisfaction (of amusement, of debauchery, of love, etc.), not with the
Stoical intention of complete abstinence, but with the refined Epicurean
intention of having in view an ever-growing pleasure. This stinginess
with the cash of your vital urge makes you definitely richer through the
postponement of pleasure, even if you should, for the most part,
renounce the indulgence of it until the end of your life. The awareness
of having pleasure under your control is, like everything idealistic,
more fruitful and more abundant than everything that satisfies the sense
through indulgence because it is thereby simultaneously consumed and
consequently lost from the aggregate of totality."
Relative ideals
Robert S. Hartman
has contended that since, colloquially, labeling an entity as ideal
means that something is the best member of the set of all things of that
class, thus the term has particular implications when used in an
ethical context. For example, he has stated, the ideal student
constitutes the best member of the set of all students in exactly the
same way that the ideal circle is the best circle that can be imagined
of the class of all circles. Since one can define the properties that
the ideal member of a class should have, according to Hartman, the value
of any actual object can be empirically determined by comparing it to
the ideal. The closer an object's actual properties match up to the
properties of the ideal, the better the object is to Hartman. Thus, a
bumpy circle drawn in the sand is worse than a very smooth one drawn
with a compass' aid, but both are better than a regularly made square.
For Hartman, the world in general has presented a situation in
which each particular entity ought usually to become more like its ideal
if possible. This entails that, in ethics,
each individual should analogously to become more like the hypothetical
ideal person, and a person's morality can actually be measured by
examining how close they live up to their ideal self, in Hartman's view.
Totalizing ideals versus emergent ideals
Philosopher Terry Eagleton has written critically about the practicality of ethical idealism.
The question of to what extent one can hold to certain ideals
practically and how facing resistance will shape them has attracted
debate from multiple thinkers. The related issue of to what extent
idealistic morality held by individuals reflects broader cultures has
done so as well. The extent to which human beings think through their
behavior irrationally or rationally has been a major issue in these such
discussions.
One 21st century philosopher who has delved into the topics is Terry Eagleton. Writing in his book After Theory, he has commented critically about the practicality of ethical idealism, Eagleton arguing,
"Moral values which state what you
ought to do are impressively idealistic, but too blatantly at odds with
your behaviour. Moral values
which reflect what you actually do are far more plausible, but only at
the cost of no longer serving to legitimate your activity."
Another 21st century philosopher who has questioned traditional understandings of idealistic morality is Kwame Anthony Appiah. In particular, his book As If: Idealization and Ideals
examined the usefulness of the concepts and the processes through which
they've been articulated. Appiah found fault in the general assumptions
made by certain thinkers of human rationality and advocated for a
larger understanding of the practical nature of the idealization process
among scholars of multiple disciplines as well as laypeople.
In depth, Appiah's book presented a nuanced picture of ethical
idealism in the context of cultural organization, the philosopher
writing,
"The history of our collective
moral learning doesn't start with the growing acceptance of a picture of
an ideal society. It starts with the rejection of some current practice
or structure, which we come to see as wrong. You learn to be in favor
of equality by noticing what is wrong with the unequal treatment of
blacks, or women, or working-class or lower-caste people."
Instances of morally idealistic views in created media
Idealism in film and television
The Star Trek franchise has traditionally set forth an optimistic view of humanity, stressing the capacity for moral idealism amidst adversity.
Multiple forms of media in terms of filmed and serially televised
production have portrayed issues surrounding ideals and characters
facing tests of their personal ethics. The fictional universe of the Star Trek franchise has traditionally aimed to portray humanity in general through the lens of idealistic morality. Creator Gene Roddenberry, a former pilot with the U.S. Air Force as well as an officer of the Los Angeles Police Department, prominently laced his character designs and overall plot threads with strong ideals such as toleration, religious skepticism, and the promotion of peace among different groups. However, this has changed with the new tone of more recent productions, a particular example being the series Star Trek: Picard.
Centered upon the U.S. politics from a detailed perspective, the television program The West Wing notably portrayed a fictional administration that filtered the nation's issues through the lens of character of Jed Bartlet,
the president being an idealist with a strong ethical drive and
oratorical skills. Running from 1999 to 2006, the series had achieved
influence not only in terms of fandom but in its legacy of inspiring
multiple individuals' belief's about American democracy itself. The news
website Vox.com has labeled it "a beloved show" and argued that "Washington can't escape The West Wing".
With respect to movies and the golden age of Hollywood, the works of American filmmaker Frank Capra
have long attracted attention for their ideals and overall presentation
of regular life, particularly when it came to lead characters. Upon
Capra's death, The New York Times published an article stating
that his works "were idealistic, sentimental and patriotic", Capra's
releases having "embodied his flair for improvisation and spontaneity"
as well as his "buoyant humor". The titular protagonist of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and his "backwoods ideals", as Variety put things, in the face of the U.S. federal government's corruption has been an example.
Movies prominently featuring pre-teen acting have sometimes become known for their idealistic portrayal of childhood. The early filmography of silent picture star Jackie Coogan
serve as an example. In that era, child performers became known for
their exaggerated dramatics and for facing plots placing them in
unfortunate situations in order to foster emotional resonance with
audiences.
To Kill a Mockingbird, released in 1962, has become known as one of the most idealistic movies in Anglo-American history. Leading character Atticus Finch, a crusading lawyer defending a man falsely accused of rape in a racially-charged atmosphere, was played by Gregory Peck. Upon the actor's death in 2003, journal The Guardian published a review of his life that labeled him the "screen epitome of idealistic individualism"; the actor's liberal values
became as much a part of his public persona as his film career, Peck
particularly taking a stand in his choice of roles against antisemitism. That same year, members of the American Film Institute voted Peck's character as Finch the greatest ever hero in motion pictures.
An article published by the Michigan Law Review has remarked upon Finch's particular influence in terms of promoting idealistic views of American legal system among many lawyers as well as the character's broader legacy,
"As the legal profession becomes
further unmoored from its noble ideals, Atticus serves as an important
symbol for a profession struggling to live up to its potential. And
while symbols are not the solution to a corrupt legal culture, it is
important to have beacons to remind us that, at our best, lawyers are
vehicles through which equal justice is realized. Atticus serves as such
an example. He has inspired countless young men and women to embark on
legal careers, and he continues to influence legal practitioners for the
better."
The original Star Wars trilogy made up of the movies A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi have attracted commentary due to the character arc of series protagonist Luke Skywalker, a former farmer coming from a place of naivety and vulnerability to become a victorious hero. The films' creation intentionally drew upon Jungian archetypes
of human psychology such that Skywalker's idealistic nature has gained
an emotional resonance with audiences. The theory of the monomyth was important in the trilogy's coming into being as well.
In terms of more recent films, the movie Wonder Woman and its titular protagonist
has been cited as a commercially successful instance of idealism on the
silver screen. Within the film's plot, the central character has to
work against the machinations of the Greek god of war, Ares, as a matter of moral duty; learning of the First World War
and the suffering of humanity, she has to act. Despite her innocence
and lack of understanding about the world, the film has overall been
cited as demonstrating the ability for an individual to make a
difference out of love. A reviewer for Radio Times
labeled the protagonist "a heroine who lives up to the majesty of her
moniker and stands apart from her superhero brethren, not just in her
gender but in her well-communicated ideals."
Anime
has frequently featured characters acting out of broader desires to
assist others, with a strong sense of ideals guiding their actions. A
notable example has been protagonist Kenshiro of the highly influential Fist of the North Star franchise. Known for his incorruptible nature and ironclad sense of determination as well as massive physical strength, the character has utilized a particular fighting style focusing on various pressure points in order to defeat his opponents while traveling through a landscape that nuclear warfare has devastated, Kenshiro serving as a violent kind of messianic archetype. In the 2010s, the character's catchphrase "Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru" ("You Are Already Dead") became one a popular internet meme.
The titular character behind the Sailor Moon franchise
has gained notice for her altruism and assertive personality. Both her
and the overall collection of media involving her have featured a dogged
idealism through which emotionally positive values such as friendship
and love win out against just about adversity.
Unusually for an animated production based around young middle-class
women, the franchise's fandom notably has stood out for its diversity in
terms of age, class, and gender.
Idealism in historical and modern printed media
Characters in stories still well known from classical antiquity for their idealistic actions and words include, for instance, Achilles. The heroic figure, a prominent part of stories such as the ancient Greek work the Iliad, has attracted notice for his immense courage and powerful sense of individual honor. Writing for CEC Critic,
professor Thomas S. Kane has stated that Achilles' particular portrayal
constitutes "idealism in an excessive, radical[,] and absolute way"
that makes the character's actions in the Iliad essentially "sadomasochistic".
The debate about the possible lack of goodness inherent in
mankind and its capacity to hold to high-minded ideals is prominently
displayed in The Grand Inquisitor,
with the fictional confrontation between Jesus Christ and an outwardly
Christian appearing leader who actually holds cynical views attracting
great attention since its authorship by Fyodor Dostoevsky
in 1880. While the titular inquisitor rationally argues for the
relativist view that people seek safety and security over higher
callings, Christ surprisingly kisses the aged, emotionally distant
leader on the lips; while still holding to his views, the moved
inquisitor allows Christ to leave freely. The ethical conflict posed by
the characters' fundamental opposition, notably, fails to come to a
resolution in the work, the ambiguity gaining much notice by later commentators.
His works achieving devoted acclaim from an international audience, Russian writer Leo Tolstoy possessed strident Christian ideals that led to conflicts with both his nation's government and its state church.
The material of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy
have had massive influence within Eurasia and elsewhere. Working
through his strident sense of religious ideals, his argumentative works
notably include The Kingdom of God Is Within You. Possessing principles that put him at odds with the Russian Orthodox Church, which excommunicated him in a failed attempt to reduce his popularity, the author's bibliography additionally includes fictional works such as Anna Karenina and War and Peace.
Multiple stories authored by Tolstoy set forth a deep ethical criticism of the mores of his day. In the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich,
for instance, the titular protagonist gets described as only truly
understanding his place in the world and the meaning of his existence on
his deathbed, the character realizing that the concerns he spent the
vast majority of his time on such as the advancement of his career
ultimately meant nothing. Tolstoy's idealism led him to abandon the
regular living expected of such a prominent figure and to live on a commune in similar practice to the early Christians shortly after the death of Jesus;
in both his fiction and other writings, he's molded the development of
not only Christian ethics but other idealistic traditions as well.
"Tolstoy is a reflector as vast as a natural lake; a monster
harnessed to his great subject— all human life," translator and writer Henry James famously remarked. Later figures influenced by Tolstoy's ideals notably include Indian independence activist and social leader Mahatma Gandhi.
Upon the author's later years, his status as a cultural icon meant that
a worldwide collection of followers worked to apply his ideals.
Comic books
often incorporate conflicts between traditional heroes and heroines,
ones who act out of a sense of altruism and cling to strict sets of
ideals, with antiheroes
and other morally ambiguous individuals that still feature prominent
superpowers. A particular example that's attracted commentary is the
tension between Superman, one so bound by ideals he's been nicknamed the "big blue boy scout", and groups such as the Elite, who face little qualms engaging in brutality. Discussing the animated film Superman vs. The Elite, an adaptation of a plot featured in the Action Comics story What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?, one movie critic opined that Superman faced his worst nemesis of all in "public opinion", with a cynical populace finding it harder in a terrorism-influenced world to support an advocate of "idealistic optimism".
Other characters of a similar type include Nightwing,
with a commentator remarking that "while Batman fights in the name of
vengeance, Nightwing does it because it’s the right thing to do." Different comics have explored the contrast between Nightwing's idealism and the views of Batman, the former figure's mentor, given that the latter figure possess a far more jaded nature with a particular lack of trust.
Thus, while teaming up on multiple occasions, Nightwing in contrast to
Batman has felt comfortable fighting in a team to accomplish larger,
altruistic goals and additionally has expressed his willingness to share
his civilianalter ego with others.
In the context of European comics, the Adventures of Tintin original series and related media, originally created by Belgian cartoonist Hergé, has featured a protagonist in foreign correspondentTintin regarded by publications such as The Guardian
as "[b]roadly speaking... Herge's ideal self", the character serving
as "the perfect boy scout" in being "idealistic, brave, [and]
pure-hearted". The publication has recommended three particular Tintin
stories within its project titled 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read.
French statesman Charles de Gaulle notably remarked that "my only
international rival is Tintin" since they had both been "the little guys
who refuse to let the big guys walk all over us."
Idealism in music and other material
Overview of idealism in music
Certain punk groups, the American band Youth of Today being an example, have gained notice for their lyrics promoting ideals such as defiance against authority in support of ordinary people and togetherness in support of social equality.
In the history of recorded music, a great many albums and songs have
been distributed with an idealistic kind of emotional tone. Such
material has often featured lyrics emphasizing psychologically positive and assuring themes, examples being compassion, faith, forgiveness, generosity,
and so on. In terms of instrumental work, said music additionally has
frequently featured upbeat sounds meant to provide a melodramatic
undercurrent, the musicians having intended feelings of contentment, joy, victory, et cetera. Idealistic material has gotten released across multiple genres from heavy metal to jazz to light rock to pop and more.
Although idealistic lyrical content has been usually considered
to exist in tandem with the rest of a given song, it has additionally
not been uncommon for that not to be the case. Prominent examples exist
of light-sounding vocals accompanying a dark-sounding background and
vice versa. Labeling particular material as being notably idealistic
within the broader market for recorded music has been a broad subject,
praising commentary for various releases having been written in a
variety of different social environments.
The straight edge movement and related sub-genres of punk rock have particularly attracted much attention in this context. Fans of positive hardcore
specifically have been known for promoting song lyrics emphasizing
camaraderie and a shared sense of purpose. Examples of the idealist hardcore sound include the bands7 Seconds and Youth of Today. Within this particular strain of the larger punk movement, music has been used as inspiration to reject the broader sense of hedonism among rock groups, with causes such as fighting against racism,
opposition to war, and raising funds for charity getting emphasized.
The ideal of unity in the face of adversity has been a core principle of
the scene.
In terms of popular music more broadly, including musicals and other such productions, particular examples of media with an idealistic, hopeful tone include South Pacific, an Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers written drama that had its Broadway debut in 1949, and Hamilton, a Lin-Manuel Miranda written drama that had its Off-Broadway debut in 2015. Discussing the former, critic Teresa Esser of The Tech has written that "South Pacific
talks to us about what truly matters in life- not the color of your
skin, or how much money you have- but the people and ideals [that] you
care for."
In terms of live performances, the Live Aid concerts of July 13, 1985 constituted what The New York Times
later called "a peak moment for idealism in rock, when top-selling
musicians decided they should leverage their popularity for good works".
The dual-venue benefit concerts took place in support of a broader fundraising initiative designed to help those affected by the then ongoing famine in Ethiopia. The set by British rock group Queen
during the event in particular has been regarded as one of the greatest
musical performances done live of all time. The group's charismatic
frontman, Freddie Mercury, has particularly garnered attention for his theatrical actions and strident looks as well as his assertive vocals.
Looking at specific lyrical focuses, songs discussing drug use often involve condemnations of pushers and lamentations of the problems around substance abuse in the context of exhorting the listener to live an ethical life. Romantic
songs have frequently depicted human relationships in a hopeful,
idealistic fashion, with the power of determination in overcoming
adversity keeping people apart serving as a theme.
Performances within certain songs
Specific songs known for their idealistic tone include:
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