The Pursuit of the Ideal
E314193
"The Pursuit of the Ideal" is a philosophical essay by Isaiah Berlin that reflects on the dangers of utopian perfectionism and defends pluralism and the acceptance of conflicting human values.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Pursuit of the Ideal canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2968413 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Pursuit of the Ideal Context triple: [The Crooked Timber of Humanity, containsEssay, The Pursuit of the Ideal]
-
A.
The Dominant Idea
The Dominant Idea is an influential anarchist essay by Voltairine de Cleyre that explores how powerful guiding beliefs shape individual behavior and social conditions.
-
B.
An Idealist View of Life
An Idealist View of Life is a philosophical work by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan that expounds his defense of idealism and explores the spiritual foundations of human experience and reality.
-
C.
“Pursuit as Happiness”
“Pursuit as Happiness” is a section of Ernest Hemingway’s nonfiction work *Green Hills of Africa* that reflects on the nature of joy, purpose, and the chase during his East African safari.
-
D.
A Paean
"A Paean" is an early poem by Edgar Allan Poe that he later expanded and revised into the better-known work "Lenore."
-
E.
The Good Society
The Good Society is a sociological work by Robert N. Bellah that explores how modern democratic institutions and civic life can be reoriented toward shared moral values and the common good.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Pursuit of the Ideal Target entity description: "The Pursuit of the Ideal" is a philosophical essay by Isaiah Berlin that reflects on the dangers of utopian perfectionism and defends pluralism and the acceptance of conflicting human values.
-
A.
The Dominant Idea
The Dominant Idea is an influential anarchist essay by Voltairine de Cleyre that explores how powerful guiding beliefs shape individual behavior and social conditions.
-
B.
An Idealist View of Life
An Idealist View of Life is a philosophical work by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan that expounds his defense of idealism and explores the spiritual foundations of human experience and reality.
-
C.
“Pursuit as Happiness”
“Pursuit as Happiness” is a section of Ernest Hemingway’s nonfiction work *Green Hills of Africa* that reflects on the nature of joy, purpose, and the chase during his East African safari.
-
D.
A Paean
"A Paean" is an early poem by Edgar Allan Poe that he later expanded and revised into the better-known work "Lenore."
-
E.
The Good Society
The Good Society is a sociological work by Robert N. Bellah that explores how modern democratic institutions and civic life can be reoriented toward shared moral values and the common good.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
essay
ⓘ
philosophical essay ⓘ |
| argues |
that attempts to realize a single perfect ideal can lead to oppression
ⓘ
that no single moral system can harmonize all genuine values ⓘ that ultimate human values can be incompatible ⓘ |
| author | Isaiah Berlin ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| criticizes |
monism about values
ⓘ
political utopianism ⓘ utopian perfectionism ⓘ |
| defends |
acceptance of conflicting human values
ⓘ
compromise in politics ⓘ liberal political arrangements ⓘ pluralism ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
the dangers of ideological fanaticism
ⓘ
the imperfection of all social arrangements ⓘ the importance of political freedom ⓘ the need for tolerance ⓘ tragic choices between values ⓘ |
| influenced |
contemporary liberal theory
ⓘ
debates on value pluralism ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
anti-totalitarian thought
ⓘ
liberal tradition ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
anti-utopianism
ⓘ
conflicting values ⓘ ethical pluralism ⓘ human fallibility ⓘ liberal political theory ⓘ liberalism ⓘ limits of rational planning ⓘ moral conflict ⓘ moral philosophy ⓘ perfectionism in politics ⓘ political moderation ⓘ political philosophy ⓘ utopianism ⓘ value pluralism ⓘ |
| notableIdea |
incompatibility of genuine values
ⓘ
rejection of perfect social blueprints ⓘ |
| philosophicalDiscipline |
ethics
ⓘ
political philosophy ⓘ |
| philosophicalSchool |
liberalism
ⓘ
value pluralism ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Four Essays on Liberty
ⓘ
Two Concepts of Liberty ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Pursuit of the Ideal Description of subject: "The Pursuit of the Ideal" is a philosophical essay by Isaiah Berlin that reflects on the dangers of utopian perfectionism and defends pluralism and the acceptance of conflicting human values.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.