ideal type

noun
1.
a construct abstracted from experience in which individual elements are combined to form a whole that is conceptually independent of empirical factors or variables, but against which particular examples of the appropriate class found in life can be measured.
Origin
1925-30
Examples from the web for ideal type
  • Faces are rarely true to any ideal type, but are a record in sculpture of a thousand anecdotes of whim and folly.
  • We believe the inclined bubbling fluidized bed is the ideal type of reactor for this application.
Encyclopedia Article for ideal type

a common mental construct in the social sciences derived from observable reality although not conforming to it in detail because of deliberate simplification and exaggeration. It is not ideal in the sense that it is excellent, nor is it an average; it is, rather, a constructed ideal used to approximate reality by selecting and accentuating certain elements

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