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A policy of opposition to enlightenment or the spread of knowledge
Answer for the clue "A policy of opposition to enlightenment or the spread of knowledge ", 12 letters:
obscurantism
Alternative clues for the word obscurantism
Word definitions for obscurantism in dictionaries
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Word definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
noun EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS ▪ But it has the disadvantage of confusion and obscurantism . ▪ Hitherto this has led to some allegations in the Press about Whitehall obscurantism but little interest or pressure in Parliament itself.
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
Obscurantism ( and ) is the practice of deliberately preventing the facts of some subject matter from becoming known. There are two, historical and intellectual denotations to Obscurantism : (1) the deliberate restriction of knowledge — opposition to disseminating ...
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. a policy of opposition to enlightenment or the spread of knowledge a deliberate act intended to make something obscure
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"opposition to enlightenment," 1834, from German obscurantismus (18c.); see obscurant + -ism .
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. 1 A state of opposition to human progress or enlightenment. 2 deliberate obscurity or vagueness.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Obscurantism \Ob*scur"ant*ism\, n. The system or the principles of the obscurants. --C. Kingsley.
Usage examples of obscurantism.
I with obscurantism, with unreasoning fear, with the brainless cruelty of children?
To take an example from comparatively current events: we all know that it was not uncommon for a man to be considered a scarecrow of bigotry and obscurantism because he distrusted the Japanese, or lamented the rise of the Japanese, on the ground that the Japanese were Pagans.
The demagogues have called in all the reserves of obscurantism to extinguish the last gleams of good sense that lingered in the people, and to reduce them to imbecility.
When the moderns, drawing the blackest curtain of obscurantism that ever obscured history, decided that nothing mattered much before the Renaissance and the Reformation, they instantly began their modern career by falling into a big blunder.
This false show of science, this camouflage of ignorance, this babble about ectoplasm and other mythical products of the psychic imagination was mere obscurantism, the bastard offspring of superstition and darkness.
The word demands to be repeated almost obsessively to the point where one could be transported hundreds of years in the past, to an era of obscurantism and amorality.
In practice, this meant missing no opportunity to defend freedom of thought against the despotism of politics and the obscurantism of religion.
The conflict of opinions and parties, of privilege and freedom, of science and obscurantism, was transferred from the secret chamber of a small, privileged, professional, and sacerdotal coterie to the arena of the reading public.
In that time he would certainly have belonged to those who reproached it with Jesuitry and obscurantism.