This is not a correction to/opinion about anything you said, but I happen to have this note handy on my desktop because I was caught trying to find different wo

This is not a correction to/opinion about anything you said, but I happen to have this note handy on my desktop because I was caught trying to find different words for the same concept you were speaking of above with the word "ideal". Found these words: archetype, prototype, ideal, ur-form, primordial (mathematics), formal cause, exemplar, Platonic form, essences, archetypal, original pattern, fundamental pattern, first principle, protype, paradigm, archetypical Just mentioning it as an aside in case anyone's ever similarly trying to find the right word in the future.