Word.ws English Dictionary

abderitism

Syllables: ab·de·rit·ism/ˈæbdəˌɹɪtɪzm̩/

abderitism noun: the theory that humanity's morality will never advance beyond its present state.

abderitism: the theory that humanity's morality will never advance beyond its present state
Image: Johann Gottlieb Becker (1720-1782), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

abderitism (uncountable)

  1. The theory that humanity's morality will never advance beyond its present state.
    • This one example of Abderitism will suffice for my present purpose, though innumerable instances might be produced in other departments.1886, R. A. K., “Overproduction and Tea Culture”, in Revue Coloniale Internationale, volume 1, Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, →OCLC, page 502
    • The Anarchist-eaters believe to have executed a master-stroke of Abderitism by turning national muttonhead and laying the blame for Anarchism at the door of foreigners.1908, Max Baginski, “Abderites versus Anarchists”, in Mother Earth, New York, N.Y.: Emma Goldman, →OCLC, page 76

Examples of abderitism in a sentence

  • The dialogue "Stilpon" presents the reader with a purely negative view of abderitism.1979, John A[loysius] McCarthy, Christoph Martin Wieland (Twayne's World Authors Series, Germany; TWAS 528), Boston, Mass.: Twayne...
  • Coming to an end thus becomes an interminable and inconsistent process, a process Kant gives the rather silly name "Abderitism" in order to capture its lack of seriousness.1994, Timothy Burns, After History?: Francis Fukuyama and His Critics, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 222:

Origin of abderitism

From German Abderitismus, from Abderit (“foolish person”) + -ismus (“-ism”), from Ancient Greek Ἀβδηρῑ́της (Abdērī́tēs, “Abderite”) because of the Abderites’ famed foolishness and stupidity in classical Greece. It is equivalent to Abderite + -ism. The German term was coined by the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) in Der Streit der Fakultäten (The Conflict of the Faculties, 1798).

Questions about abderitism

What does abderitism mean?
Abderitism means the theory that humanity's morality will never advance beyond its present state.
How do you use abderitism in a sentence?
The dialogue "Stilpon" presents the reader with a purely negative view of abderitism.
What part of speech is abderitism?
Abderitism is a noun.
How do you pronounce abderitism?
Abderitism is pronounced /ˈæbdəˌɹɪtɪzm̩/ (UK).

Words near abderitism in the dictionary

  1. abderian
  2. Abderians
  3. Abderite
  4. Abderites
  5. abderitic
  6. abderitism
  7. Abdeslam
  8. abdest
  9. Abdi
  10. Abdias
  11. abdicable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: abderitism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-abderitism.wav.

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