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The belief that the world can be made better by human effort
Answer for the clue "The belief that the world can be made better by human effort ", 9 letters:
meliorism
Word definitions for meliorism in dictionaries
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Meliorism \Mel"io*rism\, n. [From L. melior better.] The doctrine that there is a tendency throughout nature toward improvement. --J. Sully.
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
Meliorism is an idea in metaphysical thinking holding that progress is a real concept leading to an improvement of the world. It holds that humans can, through their interference with processes that would otherwise be natural, produce an outcome which is ...
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. the belief that the world can be made better by human effort
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. The view or doctrine that the world can be improved through human effort (often understood as an intermediate outlook between optimism and pessimism). (from 19th c.)
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"belief that the world tends to become better," 1868, from Latin melior (see meliorate ) + -ism . Related: Meliorist (1835).
Usage examples of meliorism.
He had told the voters, 'We can do better,' and now his deeply-held and boldly-stated meliorism would be tested - a test devised by a crotchety genius and delivered by an idealistic tycoon, both of whom clearly viewed him with the skepticism due an unproven youth.
Lewis gave a bad jolt to the eighteenth-century doctrine of the Perfectibility of Man, and Wilde did the same to Victorian meliorism and moralism.
The idea of a universal evolution lends itself to a doctrine of general meliorism and progress which fits the religious needs of the healthy-minded so well that it seems almost as if it might have been created for their use.