page_title: Ideal (ethics)
section_title: In traditional achievement
hierarchical_section_title: Ideal (ethics) / Idealistic appeals in practice / In traditional achievement
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Terry Fox, Canadian cancer fund-raiser, during his 1980 "Marathon of Hope" fund-raising run across Canada. Photo taken July 12, 1980 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada by Jeremy Gilbert with his Praktika SLR 35 mm camera on Bloor Street East, near entrance to Castle Frank subway station, looking south-east towards Castle Frank Road as Fox heads west along Bloor Street.
context_page_description: An ideal is a principle or value that an entity actively pursues as a goal and holds above other, more petty concerns perceived as being less meaningful. Terms relating to the general belief in ideals include ethical idealism, moral idealism, and principled idealism. A person with a particular insistence on holding to ideals, often even at considerable cost as a consequence of holding such a belief, is usually called an ethical idealist, moral idealist, principled idealist, or simply an idealist for short. The latter term is not to be confused with metaphysical idealism, a viewpoint about existence and rationality unrelated to the ethical concept. The term ideal is applied not only to individuals but also to organizations large and small from independent churches to social activist groups to political parties to nation states and more. An entity's ideals usually function as a way to set firm guidelines for decision making, with the possibility of having to sacrifice and undergo loss being in the background.
context_section_description: In a less abstract sense, multiple famous private individuals have been thought to embody certain ideals due to multiple factors such as their courage, intelligence, personal endurance, and so on. Although existing in real life and thus being subject to complexities that philosophical thought experiments often don't feature, these moral examples have established a link between dry intellectual principles and broader issues found in regular people's decision making. Naturally, even the famous have possessed diverse and multi-faceted traits. To get considered representative of an ideal has usually constituted a necessary simplification process; with only a few traits on prominent display, some individuals have become easy archetypes which others have tried to mimic.
  For instance, disabled athlete Terry Fox has been a prominent example of idealistic values. Known for his "Marathon of Hope", Fox's public running helped raise huge amounts for charity and spread awareness of the achievement possible among those possessing a handicap (in Fox's case, a lost leg due to cancer). An article from Maclean's has referred to him simply as: "The humanitarian, the athlete, the idealist." Within Fox's native Canada, his actions have earned him praise many years after his life ended, attracting commentary labeling him a "hero".
  Fox finished second to politician Tommy Douglas in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program The Greatest Canadian, which the organization broadcast in 2004. Fox's iconic status has been attributed to his image as an ordinary person attempting a remarkable and inspirational feat. Aside from Fox's organization engaging in decade-spanning work successfully raising funds for Canadian health, his foundation achieving a total of over $750 million dollars in donations as of 2018, Fox's legacy additionally includes the promotion of social tolerance and active inclusion between the broader society and those with disabilities. The athlete had optimistically aimed to motivate his nation enough to raise a dollar from every single Canadian, and his organization managed to greatly exceed that after his death.
  Commenting in depth on Fox's set of ideals, Maclean's journalists Dan Robson and Catherine McIntyre have remarked,
  "During those early days of his 'Marathon of Hope', as he covered the equivalent of a marathon a day, very few people knew of the 21-year-old from Port Coquitlam, B.C. But through the spring and summer of 1980, Fox captivated the nation with his display of will and strength. And nearly four decades later, his legacy continues to inspire people around the world. In what would be the final stretch of his journey, Fox's daily progress through the northern Ontario landscape was a moving picture of humility, dedication and unrelenting courage... [blazing] a trail that inspired millions to follow."
  As well, multiple figures with a sincerely revered or otherwise prominent status within religious and broadly spiritual beliefs have been seen by individuals within those movements as representative of an ethical idealism worth mimicking. In Islam, for instance, the life of the prophet Muhammad has been held up as a comprehensive ideal for Muslims to study. However, all of his words and deeds must be interpreted for believers through the lens of his life's broader path and the larger religious context, according to Islamic scholars. Multiple other prophets exist in Islam and have been considered worth devoted study including Jesus and previous figures such as Abraham and Moses.
  In the Jewish context, the term "mensch" has gotten frequently used to describe an individual of great worth due to his or her moral actions. Originally coming from Yiddish, the labeling of idealistic people as such has since become co-opted into regular use within the English language in certain areas. Different scholarly traditions within Judaism have articulated theories of promoting moral behavior as well as more generally seeking to improve both humanity and nature in order to meet higher ideals; the process has been known as "tikkun olam",
caption: Athlete Terry Fox helped redefine the cultural image of disabled individuals in his native Canada and elsewhere, his charity work and upbeat attitude creating a reputation as an idealist and humanitarian.[27][28][29]
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