ABSTRACT
Its meanings include: what is immediately present to the mind in an experience (SENSE DATUM, feeling); what is before the mind when it reflects, remembers, introspects, imagines (images, etc.); what the mind preserves from its experiences, or finds within itself, or constructs in various ways out of simpler ideas (one’s idea of red, colour, gratitude, number); things like these latter but common to different people (‘the’ idea of red); a quality in an object which causes experiences (Locke, but rarely even
there); the meaning of a word; the subjective associations of a word, contrasted with its meaning (Frege); a representation of something that cannot be experienced (Kant, based on Plato). For Hegel ‘idea’ means something like the overall pattern or purpose in the universe or is a term whose use centres on this. In aesthetics ‘idea’ is sometimes used in a Platonic sense, for what a work of art aims to embody or copy.
