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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

confusionism en · NOUN

Etymology

From confusion + -ism.

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) Any doctrine or philosophy that serves to confuse people.
    • Yet it is this very proliferation that has induced Stanley Fish to proclaim the imminent demise of theory, a demise whose most telling symptom is precisely the "noise" generated by theory. Commenting on and extending Fish's line of argument, Vincent Descombes argues that we have entered a phase of theoretical confusionism that makes it difficult to determine what theory is. 1989, Thomas M. Kavanagh, The Limits of Theory, page 168:
    • Let us not forget, moreover, that objectivism still boasts staunch defenders in contemporary thought, who typically level facile charges of confusionism or obtuseness against so called 'postmodern scepticism' […] 2012, A. Kioupkiolis, Freedom After the Critique of Foundations:

Coordinates

arcanity · abstrusity · obscuration · obfuscation · obscurantism · misleadership · esotericism · delusionism

Relateds

Confucianism · muddy the waters · clear as mud

Translations (3)

fr confusionnisme (a strategy of maintaining confusion) · ca confusionisme (a strategy of maintaining confusion) · ru запутаи́зм (a strategy of maintaining confusion)