subjectivism

[suhb-jek-tuh-viz-uhm]

noun

1. Epistemology.,  the doctrine that all knowledge is limited to experiences by the self, and that transcendent knowledge is impossible.

2. Ethics.

   1. any of various theories maintaining that moral judgments are statements concerning the emotional or mental reactions of the individual or the community.

   2. any of several theories holding that certain states of thought or feeling are the highest good.

subjectivism

/ səbˈdʒɛktɪˌvɪzəm /

noun

1. the meta-ethical doctrine that there are no absolute moral values but that these are variable in the same way as taste is

2. any similar philosophical theory, for example, about truth or perception

3. any theological theory that attaches primary importance to religious experience

4. the quality or condition of being subjective

Other Word Forms

• subjectivist noun
• subjectivistic adjective
• subjectivistically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of subjectivism¹

First recorded in 1855–60; subjective + -ism

Example Sentences

Like their Nazi precursors, the Communist rulers of East Germany scorn the subjectivism and decadence of modernist art.

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Our academic system, from pre-K through graduate school, contrasts science and literature – objectivism and subjectivism, reductionism and holism.

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All subjectivism, all relativism, all criticism, therefore, are baffled in presence of the ego.

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The fault was not wholly in the subjectivism of the movement.

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Dewey favors the naïve standpoint, and affirms that presentative realism is tainted by an epistemological subjectivism.

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