IDEAL BEALISM 115 IDIOCY the Absolute. Idealism denies the exist- ence of bodies, holding that their ap- pearances are merely ideas (percep- tions) of the cogitant subject. Subjec- tive idealism teaches that these ideas are produced by the mind; objective ideal- ism that God is their author. To these two hypotheses all idealism may be re- duced. Zeno of Elea, in classic times, anticipated modern idealism. Berkeley developing Locke, Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibnitz did much to revive ideal- ism. Kant has been claimed as an ideal- ist — Franck makes Kant's idealisme snb- jectif one of the three divisions to which he refers all modifications of Ideal phi- losophy. Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel are the founders of the great schools of German Idealism, called respectively. Subjective, Objective, and Absolute. For Fichte the object has no real existence, but is dependent on the subject; the non- Ego is the product of the Ego (the hu- man soul). For Schelling object and subject are equally real, and equally manifestations of the Ego (in his sys- tem the Absolute, the Substance of Spi- noza). Hegel's only reality in this case is the relation between the Ego and the non-Ego. IDEAL REALISM, a name for the teachings of an eclectic branch of the Kantian school, who attempted to build up a harmonious system without sacri- ficing Kant's realistic postulates to his idealistic teachings, or conversely giving up the latter in favor of the former. Schleiermacher, Ulrici, and Trendelen- burg were of this section of Kantists. IDENTITY, the quality or state of being identical or the same; sameness; identicalness. Personal. — The sameness of each indi- vidual throughout life, though the atoms of which the body are composed, the dis- position, habits, and modes of thought, are continually changing. Principle. — The principle that every ens is necessary itself and not any other ens. This follows directly from the first principle of Scholastic Philosophy, some- times called the Principle of Contradic- tion. The same thing cannot be and not- be at the same time. Philosophy. — The name given to the objective idealism of Schelling. Accord- ing to this system, object and subject, I'eal and ideal, natui*e and spirit are in- dentical (not in themselves, but) "in the Absolute," of which they are manifesta- tions. IDEOLOGY, a term introduced by De- stutt de Tracy in his "Elements of Ideol- ogy" (1801-1804) to designate the phi- losophy of the French Sensational School. The mind, according to de Tracy, is nothing but sensation, or more properly the sensibility of which sensa- tion is the exercise. The word has now come to have a more extended meaning, and its use is not confined to a par- ticular school. IDES, in the ancient Roman calendar, the loth day of the months March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other months. IDIOCY, a condition defined by Ire- land as "mental deficiency or extreme stupidity depending upon malnutrition or disease of the brain occurring either before birth or before the evolution of the mental faculties in childhood; while imbecility is generally used to denote a less decided degree of such mental in- capacity." The difference between both conditions and dementia is that the de- ment was once sane and responsible, the idiot and the imbecile never developed mental capacity at all; they remained arrested children. The name amentia has been given to idiocy. There are great varieties of idiocy and imbecility. Some of the lowest have no speech, no power of distinguishing between one per- son and another, no affection or hatred, no feelings of pleasure or pain, no power to take care of themselves, and can never be taught any of these things. In body such idiots are dwarfish, misshapen, ugly, with the features and expression of face often of the lowest of the lower ani- mals, with no power of walking. This being the condition of the lowest vari- eties, they rise gradually in the scale till many imbeciles are beautiful in features, and reach normal bodily development, but are slightly wanting in some essen- tial mental faculty. Idiots and imbeciles differ much in their capacity for further development under even favorable circumstances. Some can be greatly elevated toward the standard of average humanity, and can even be rendered fit to earn their own livelihood in simple trades of manual labor, while others cannot be in any way improved. They are especially subject to certain bodily diseases of degenera- tion, such as scrofula, consumption, rick- ets, and diseases of deficient nutrition generally. Two-thirds of idiots die of consumption. The great aims in treat- ment are to improve the bodily nutrition, the nervous and muscular action, and the habits, and to evolve the possible intel- ligence by an education through the senses. Some of them have one faculty or capacity fairly or even extraordi- narily developed, while the general men-
