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. A principle (not principal) is something, usually a rule or norm, that is part of the basis for something else. ... Look up value in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An objective or goal is a personal or organizational desired end point in development. ... Ethics (via Latin from the Ancient Greek moral philosophy, from the adjective of Ä“thos custom, habit), a major branch of philosophy, is the study of values and customs of a person or group. ...

For idealism, 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, it is more important than honesty. This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedias quality standards. ... Honest redirects here, For other uses, see Honesty (disambiguation) Look up honesty in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A lie is a statement made by someone who believes or suspects it to be false, in the expectation that the hearers may believe it. ... Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more humans. ...

In some theories of applied ethics, such as that of Rushworth Kidder, there is importance given to such orders as a way to resolve disputes. In law, for instance, a judge is often called on to resolve the balance between the ideal of truth, which would advise hearing out all evidence, and the ideal of fairness, which would require keeping some evidence unfairly gathered or impossible to validate out of the process. Applied ethics takes a theory of ethics, such as utilitarianism, social contract theory, or deontology, and applies its major principles to a particular set of circumstances and practices. ... Rushworth M. Kidder founded the Institute for Global Ethics in 1990, and is the author of Moral Courage and How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living. ... It has been suggested that Adjudication be merged into this article or section. ... Lady Justice or Justitia is a personification of the moral force that underlies the legal system (particularly in Western art). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A common dictionary definition of truth is agreement with fact or reality.[1] There is no single definition of truth about which the majority of philosophers agree. ... Justice is a concept involving the fair and moral treatment of all persons, especially in law. ...

In politics ideals play a pivotal role. During the French Revolution, the principles of "Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood" were raised to the status of ideals. The Ten Key Values of the Green Party are likewise raised to such status today. In fact, most political movements have a certain set of ideals. However, in many cases, one can easily find instances where ideals were "not lived up to" - some of which are cases where one simply proved to outweigh another for some specific decision, or where all were compromised simply to retain the power to continue to pursue them. The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. ... The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... ... Much of the recent sociological debate on power revolves around the issue of the constraining and/or enabling nature of power. ...

A different form of ideal is an idol or hero, who is held up as a moral example. Since this is an actual person or fictional character, it is too complex and multi-faceted to be considered an ideal in the abstract sense. However, when they are encountered in the form of a story, with only a few traits on display, they are a simplified archetype from which one can very easily derive stereotypes or mimicry. In Islam, for instance, the life of Muhammad is held up as "ideal", but must be interpreted for believers through the tale of his life, or sira, and his many sayings, the hadith. Idolatry is a major sin in the Abrahamic religions regarding image. ... “Heroine” redirects here. ... Moral example is trust in the moral core of another, a role model, without the obvious mediation of any theory or language. ... An archetype is a generic, idealized model of a person, object, or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For people named Islam, see Islam (name). ... Muhammad in a new genre of Islamic calligraphy started in the 17th century by Hafiz Osman. ... For the river and also village in Norway named Sira, see Sira, Norway. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Given the complexity of putting ideals into practice, and resolving conflicts between them, it is not uncommon to see them reduced to dogma. One way to avoid this, according to Bernard Crick, is to have ideals that themselves are descriptive of a process, rather than an outcome. His political virtues try to raise the practical habits useful in resolving disputes into ideals of their own. A virtue, in general, is an ideal that one can make a habit. Dogma (the plural is either dogmata or dogmas, Greek , plural ) is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization, thought to be authoritative and not to be disputed or doubted. ... Sir Bernard Crick (born 16 December 1929) is a British political theorist whose views are often summarised as politics is ethics done in public. He seeks to arrive at a politics of action, as opposed to a politics of thought or of ideology. ... The political virtues were listed by Bernard Crick In Defense of Politics, 1982. ... Personification of virtue (Greek ἀρετή) in Celsus Library in Ephesos, Turkey Virtue (Latin virtus; Greek ) is moral excellence of a person. ... In psychology, habituation is an example of non-associative learning in which there is a progressive diminution of behavioral response probability with repetition of a stimulus. ...

In formal axiology, Robert S. Hartman contended that being ideal means that something is the "best member of the set" of all things of that class. For example, the "ideal student" is the best member of the set of all students in the exact same way that the ideal circle is the best circle that can be imagined of the class of all circles. Since we can define the properties that the ideal member of a class should have, 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. For example, a bumpy circle drawn in the sand is not as "good" as a very smooth one drawn with a compass. In the world in general, each particular object "ought to" become more like it's ideal. In ethics, by analogy, each person should attempt to become more of an ideal person, and a person's morality can actually be measured by examining how close they live up to their ideal self. Robert Schirokauer Hartman (January 27, 1910 - September 20, 1973) was a logician and philosopher. ... Ethics (via Latin from the Ancient Greek moral philosophy, from the adjective of Ä“thos custom, habit), a major branch of philosophy, is the study of values and customs of a person or group. ...

See also: idealism. This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedias quality standards. ...

External links

• The tension between the Ideal and Actual can be compared to the tension between the two poles of a magnet