Doctoral study day
Wednesday February 19, 2025
Bordeaux Montaigne University
The Ideal: Search and Rejection
“No one meets the ideal twice. How few meet it even once!”
Oscar Wilde
Whether ideals are consciously articulated or not, they play an important role in our value judgments. The ideal first connotes the idea, and therefore, by extension, the non-tangible, the antonym of matter. As such, it evokes permanence and universality, and its existence would then be governed neither by time, nor by material experience, nor by subjectivity. It would thus offer a reference point, residing in a higher and immutable place, capable of guiding us through the challenges posed by a changing and shifting materiality, in which we have less confidence. This first definition of the ideal has theological and Platonic (or even Kantian) origins, where the ideal was the sign of a dualist metaphysical conception.
However, in its more general sense, the ideal is also synonymous with desirability. While its first meaning says of an object that it belongs to the world of ideas, or that the element is the perfect representative of this idea, this meaning has undergone a shift. The ideal is no longer understood in its sense of conformity of the object to its immutable transcendent model, but of the conformity of the object to a desired result. An ideal society, for example, is not understood as a society of the world of ideas but as being a society in which we could live in the best conditions.
This double meaning of the notion of ideal blurs the boundaries between the imaginary and the real. Utopias, for example, propose a model of life that is desirable, or towards which to progress, but their very name is that of “non-place” and therefore of “non-reality.” It is the sense of unrealizable that prevails in everyday language. A “utopian” or even “utopian” idea is an idea dismissed as too unrealizable, too unrealistic, and perhaps even too unreasonable. The ideal is then seen as belonging to the domain of poets and dreamers.
It is also in this gap that hope and enthusiasm can be born. Thomas More places his island of Utopia in the New World (without specifying its exact location) at a time when the New World represents an idealized place, seen as a kind of new Eden and thus welcoming many hopes and projections. The ideal indeed offers fertile ground for imagination and reflection: its distance from ordinary experience allows for the development of more abstract, uninhibited reflection and for surpassing self-censorship in reflection.
However, the problem of the ideal as a potentially unattainable perfection arises. Without proof of its attainability, or even of its existence, what position do we adopt in the face of the ideal? Are we pursuing a quest whose objective is not guaranteed? This tension at the heart of the notion of the ideal arises from an ethical problem that will bring to mind, for example, the ideal of objectivity in the historian.
Rejection of the ideal can also be a Source of liberation, whether artistic, intellectual, or cultural. When the ideal is neither a driving force nor an objective, it can become a constraint. The weight of heritage can then represent a brake in the quest for authenticity. The ideal then resembles a process of standardization of thought, a straitjacket to which one must conform without leaving room for individuality. It smooths out the rough edges of personalities, and can give rise to the construction of stereotypes to which one must conform in order to obtain societal acceptance. In this sense, it can become an instrument of oppression and discrimination. We think for example of the Victorian ideal of femininity, “The Angel in the House”, which allowed and encouraged the oppression of women by forcing them to the domestic sphere and the role of wife and mother, thus limiting their access to the public sphere, and justifying their lack of financial and social independence.
Criticism of ideals can give rise to movements – intellectual, cultural, artistic – that wish to overthrow them or even replace them with new ideals, often seen as closer to the needs of inclusiveness or identity. These new expressions arise from the feeling that the implicit trajectory of the ideal is not the right one and that a new direction must be adopted. However, these movements of rejection sometimes have difficulty taking hold in cases where they are solely motivated by a dynamic of opposition, and the rebellion then sometimes remains in the shadow of the previous ideal. History shows that the union behind a new ideal is indeed a much more powerful driving force: the movements that have had the greatest impact have often replaced one ideal with another. We think, for example, of the movements fighting against slavery and racial discrimination, whose ideal of equality and respect for differences was more promising than its predecessor, that of imperial glory.
The rejection of the ideal can be likened to a rejection of the past: distrust of ideals is part of the historical struggle between tradition and modernity, which signals both the need for the renewal of ideals and their importance as markers of an era and its zeitgeist. Movements of rejection of ideals therefore themselves constitute the history and cultural identity of a country in the sense that they can both reveal the implicit ideals that govern society and explicitly formulate an evolution of mentalities at a given moment.
The ideals that drive a culture are not always visible. In his 1967 essay, Robert Bellah shows that although Christianity appears to be the religion of the United States, there is, in reality, a “civil religion.” This term designates a set of beliefs, present throughout the people, that creates a sacred bond with the nation and that transcends religious affiliations. By unpacking the term civil religion, Bellah highlights that the ideals advocated are not always the ideals respected, and that there are subtleties in finding the ideals that truly govern the moral foundations and legitimation processes within a given society.
Underlying ideals are also brought to light in a more organic way during moments of intercultural communication and sharing. Interculturality is indeed a site that allows awareness of the contingency of the social organization of one’s society of origin. Putting into words and explaining an ideal that was previously obvious can be a real test and allows for the examination and comparison of the foundations of a culture.
This study day will be an opportunity, thanks to the contributions of young researchers from different disciplines in the human and social sciences, to establish together a more in-depth understanding of the notion of the ideal and to establish its interest as an object of interdisciplinary study.
—
Submission Terms
We invite proposals for 20-minute papers, in English or French, from all disciplines interested in the ways in which the ideal (through its pursuit or rejection) operates at the individual and/or cultural level.
Communications may cover, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- the ideal and the aesthetic
– the ideal and the scientific process / the methodology of the researcher
– the ideal and the collective imagination
– utopias and dystopias
– idealization and denaturation of the object
– the role played by the notions of paradise lost and/or golden age (in literature, as in political discourse or otherwise)
– the driving ideals of literary and/or artistic movements
– the underlying cultural ideals
– idealism in speech
– the rejection of the ideal as personal, artistic, or cultural liberation
—
Proposals, of approximately 250 words, should be sent with a short biographical presentation to [email protected] and [email protected] before October 31, 2024.
Returns will be made within the first 15 days of November.
—
Indicative Bibliography
BELLAH, Robert N. “Civil Religion in America,” Archives of the Social Sciences of Religion, 1973, 35(1), pp. 7–22.
BONNET Gérard, “Ideals and their ravages”, Imaginaire & Inconscient, 2008/1 (n° 21), p. 101-121.
BRISSON Luc (trans. and ed.). Plato. The Banquet, Paris, Flammarion, 2018.
CHAPPEY, Frédéric, ed. The Eroticism of Marcel Gromaire: Nudes in Search of the Ideal. Paris: Somogy, 2010.
FONER Eric. “Freedom: America’s Evolving and Enduring Idea,” OAH Magazine of History, Volume 20, Issue 4, 2006, p. 9–11.
JUMEAU-LAFOND, Jean-David, dir. Alexandre Séon (1855-1917): The ideal beauty. Silvana Editoriale, 2015.
KANT, Emmanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Paris, PUF, 2012.
Leroux Georges (trans. and ed.). Plato. The Republic, Paris, Flammarion, 2004.
ROMERI, Luciana, “Plato’s Ideal City: From the Imaginary to the Unrealizable”, Kentron, 2008, volume 24.
Related News :