philosophism

American  

[fi-los-uh-fiz-uhm] / fɪˈlɒs əˌfɪz əm /

noun

1. spurious or deceitful philosophy.

2. a false or contrived argument, especially one designed to deceive.

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Other Word Forms

• antiphilosophism
  noun

Etymology

Origin of philosophism

First recorded in 1785–95; philosoph(y) + -ism

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

philosophism

They no longer treated it "as a philosophism," or wild prank, but as a wicked scheme to risk life and property in a search for the mysteries of the unknown and unknowable.

From First Across the Continent The story of the exploring expedition of Lewis and Clark in 1804-5-6 by Noah Brooks

Burke attempted to brand with a new name that set of pert, petulant, sophistical sciolists, whose philosophy the French, since their revolutionary period, have distinguished as philosophism, and the philosophers themselves as philosophistes.

From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 by Isaac Disraeli

In the forefront appears the fixed and favorite idea of the old-fashioned philosophism.

From The French Revolution - Volume 3 by John Durand

Piety is a womanly virtue which women alone can really instil; and the Marquise, a child of the eighteenth century, had adopted her father's creed of philosophism, and practised no religious observances.

From A Woman of Thirty by Honoré de Balzac

It was Dr. Lind, according to Hogg, who gave Shelley his first lessons in French philosophism.

From The Radicalism of Shelley and Its Sources by Daniel J. MacDonald