Presentism

Quick meaning: Presentism is a noun meaning The belief that only current phenomena are relevant.

Meaning

The belief that only current phenomena are relevant.

More Meanings

1. The ahistorical interpretation of past phenomena in terms of current beliefs and knowledge.
2. (philosophy) The view that neither the future nor the past exist (events and entities that are wholly past or wholly future do not exist at all).

Example Sentences

Many people lost their perspective in their euphoria and became parochial and presentist. In their presentism, they forgot that long distance ties had been flourishing for generations, using automobiles, telephones, airplanes, and even postal (snail) mail.

Despite the breathless presentism of the current discourse, scholarly debate on the nature of community did not originate with the introduction of new computer technologies, but arose out of earlier concerns about the transition from agrarian to urban industrial societies.

One of the driving ideas on the left right now is presentism: the notion that figures from the past can legitimately be judged by contemporary mores and values. So the Founding Fathers are cast less as architects of the new Republic, and more as slaveholders and white oppressors.

Word Forms

• presentisms

Antonyms for presentism

Common opposites include eternalism.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include pastism, possibilist, potentialism, actualism, projectivism, allism.

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