IDEALS, Mathew Kodappanamkunnel

An ideal is a principle or value that one actively pursues as a goal. Ideals are particularly important in ethics, as the order in which one places them tends to determine the degree to which one reveals them as real and sincere. It is the application, in ethics, of a universal. It is roughly similar to the relative intrinsic values. Someone who claims to have an ideal of honesty but is willing to lie to protect a friend is demonstrating that not only does he hold friendship as an ideal, but, that it is a more important one than honesty. Thus ideals can be seen to be similar to values.

As J. E. Moore says in his book "Principia Ethica" (1903), "When we call a state of things "ideal" we may mean three distinct things, which have only this in common: that we always do mean to assert, of the state of things in question, not only that it is good in itself, but that it is good in itself in a much higher degree than many other things. The first of these meanings of "ideal" is (1) that to which the phrase "The Ideal" is most properly confined. By this is meant the best state of things conceivable, the Summum Bonum or Absolute Good. It is in this sense that a right conception of Heaven would be a right conception of the Ideal: we mean by the Ideal a state of things which would be absolutely perfect. But this conception may be quite clearly distinguished from a second, namely, (2) that of the best possible state of things in this world. This second conception may be identified with that which has frequently figured in philosophy as the "Human Good," or the ultimate end towards which our action should be directed. It is in this sense that Utopias are said to be Ideals. the constructor of an Utopia may suppose many things to be possible, which are in fact impossible; but he always assumes that some things, at least, are rendered impossible by natural laws, and hence his construction differs essentially from one which may disregard all natural laws, however certainly established. At all events the question "What is the best state of things which we could possibly bring about?" is quite distinct from the question "What would be the best state of things conceivable?" But, thirdly, we may mean by calling a state of things "ideal" merely (3) that it is good in itself in a high degree. And it is obvious that the question what things are "ideal" in this sense is one which must be answered before we can pretend to settle what is the Absolute or the Human Good. It is with the Ideal, in this third sense, that this chapter will be principally concerned. Its main object is to arrive at some positive answer to the fundamental question of Ethics—the question: "What things are goods or ends in themselves?" To this question we have hitherto obtained only a negative answer: the answer that pleasure is certainly not the sole good."

Ideals vary with regard to everything. So every man has his own ideal of human greatness. Some worship the man of power, some look up for inspiration to the silent, patient worker, who is dedicated to knowledge, trying to keep the torch of science and philosophy burning like Einstein, C. V. Raman or Satyen Bose. There are others, again, who love the man of action, the doer of deeds as Stalin in Russia or Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in India and outside. And there may be others also, who are impressed by the man who obeys the inner call and renounces the world and dedicates himself to duties of love and service, like Swami Vivekananda. But my ideal of a great man is something different from any of those mentioned above. A great man, in my opinion, must be, above all littleness, — the petty jealousies and prejudices that afflict the ordinary man. He must be dedicated to a noble ideal, entirely selfless, free from all narrowness, truthful in speech, fearless in action, but polite in manners and yet a lion in spirit. He must appeal to the noblest elements of our nature. Such a great man has faith in the fundamental values of life. He must be a dreamer of dreams and a doer of deeds; among the great, equal to the greatest, among the humble one of the humblest. He is none other than the national father of India, Mahatma Gandhi.