Importance of Idea

This post can be considered as prologue to explanation of this post. I am writing this to indicate where I am coming from

Since last few months I am obsessed with Ideas. What is an Idea? How inherent is an Idea in reality? How potent is the idea as a force? How does free will relate to idea and Most important, how can idea be harnessed towards some goal?

This obsession with the concept started after reading "War And Peace".

I have not much to say about the Literary worth of the work, considering that it is one of the most important book to come from Russia and yet I was not overwhelmed by the story or the characters, (I have plebian tastes).

Yet what most intrigued me was Tolstoy's explanation of Napoleonic war. Contrary to popular explanation, he debunked the genius or determination of Napoleon

What is more, he claimed that, what Napoleon did was less owing to his individual will and more due to popular sentiment. This seemed to me an absurd thing. I, like majority have been conditioned to believe in the exaggerated notion of individual will.

However on second thoughts I felt more favourable towards his view, According to Tolstoy, the force behind the Napoleonic war was Idea.

Napoleonic war happened, he said, not because of individual will of Napoleon or even his generals, it was because the prevalent mood in France supported it, and how was mood in France so ? Why, because of French revolution.

French revolution had released all of a sudden the suppressed energy of a nation previously shackled under a feudal system. This energy, this pervading spirit needed expansion and Napoleonic wars provided the way. He argued, correctly in my view, that this energy would have caused the event to happen similarly if someone other than Napoleon , for example Robis Pierre, was there.

It is not realized now but the reason Napoleon got support from many European nations (at least initially, before Europe turned against him) was because of his idea of "continental system and freedom", French revolution was ofcourse result of a culmination of idea, which starts with Aristotle and through renaissance ends with Voltaire.

In the same way when Russia repulsed Napoleon finally and entered Europe,like wise it was not merely tsar but the collective force which was responsible.

After mulling over this, I have come to a conclusion that Tolstoy was right. I have also realized that the present situation India faces is because

1) The importance of idea is not realized.
2) If the importance of idea is realized, secondary ideas (which are effects) are mistaken for the primary ideas (or premises), this may be due to mistake in analysis or bias in assumptions.
3) Secondary ideas are identified correctly, but the primary idea (or premise) is incorrect, this is more due to bias.

Now , if only I could find what is the meaning of idea.


*Warning* Idea, Primary, Or Secondary are my own usage, the reason being that I am not familiar with standard vocabulary of logic.