Crossword clues for meliorism
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.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
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.)
WordNet
n. the belief that the world can be made better by human effort
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 an improvement over the aforementioned natural one.
Meliorism, as a conception of the person and society, is at the foundation of contemporary liberal democracy and human rights and is a basic component of liberalism.
Another important understanding of the meliorist tradition comes from the American Pragmatic tradition. One can read about it in the works of Lester Frank Ward, William James, Ralph Nader, and John Dewey.
Meliorism has also been used by Arthur Caplan to describe positions in bioethics that are in favor of ameliorating conditions which cause suffering, even if the conditions have long existed (e.g. being in favor of cures for common diseases, being in favor of serious anti-aging therapies as they are developed).
Meliorism was a wing of the Italian Communist Party. Its leader was Giorgio Napolitano, and counted among its number Gerardo Chiaromonte and Emanuele Macaluso. It was also referred to as the "right wing" of the Italian Communist Party, due to its more moderate views.
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.