Without ambition, there is no drive

Edward Sadi Carnot imagined an idealized heat engine, one with none of the imperfections of real engines. The concept of Carnot’s engine suggested a kind of idealism; in such an engine, there are no heat losses. That was not possible in a real engine, yet the concept was useful. Were there no such a concept, we would not have thought of designing ideal ‘real’ engines.
Carnot had an ‘infinite mind’. He could think of various restrictive forces to achieve his objective. He could visualize that epochs would take to fulfill his dreams. But that did not deter him from his stated objective. He understood that for creating new knowledge, one needs to overcome several contradictions. One needs the help of several earlier discoveries. He could ‘perceive’ what could be ‘sensed’. He could perceive that the concept of perfection must necessarily exist. He could perceive that sufficient inputs are needed for optimum outputs.
Idealism is an ambiguous word, said S Radhakrishnan. I would say, idealism is an ambitious word. Without ambition there is no drive.