• TheMadFool
    13.8k
    Imagine for a moment that you reject any and all Isms - atheism, theism, physicalism, every Ism in philosophy. What we're left with is, from what I gather, Nihilism. What happens if we now say no to Nihilism too?
  • Banno
    23.1k
    ...so you are an ismist. You espouse ismism.
  • Jack Cummins
    5.1k

    I am not sure that we are just restricted to isms. For example, one can be a Jungian and that is not an ism. Generally, I think that isms are about putting ideas into boxes, and I am not sure that we need to make use of such boxes to label our ideas, but rather juxtapose them in the most creative ways to develop our viewpoints.
  • Amity
    4.6k
    Imagine for a moment that you reject any and all IsmsTheMadFool

    OK. Imagined and failed. It just isn't possible.
    -Isms are a part of our life. Lists of them abound. Even if you just look at the -isms in discrimination.

    What happens if we now say no to Nihilism too?TheMadFool

    I was gonna say 'Escapism' - but there ya go...you just can't get away...and perhaps it is a good thing that we can't avoid -isms.
    Without an -ism, how would we acknowledge, describe, analyse or act on e.g. racism, ageism.
    Important to name and deal with real consequences - the actual practice of specific human behaviours.
    There is no escaping this...no matter what -ism, rightly or wrongly we use...

    Definition and examples of -isms:
    https://ismbook.com/ism-list/

    Here’s a short list of some common isms that we see in society every day.

    political isms
    cultural isms
    social justice isms
    systemic isms
    philosophical isms

    These main categories are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to philosophy words ending in ism, and by no means are these all the isms in the world.

    An -ism:
    a distinctive doctrine, cause, theory or religion
    manner of action or behavior characteristic of a (specified) person or thing
    prejudice or discrimination on the basis of a (specified) attritube
    adherence to a system or a class of principles

    There follows a list of philosophy words ending in -ism.
  • Tom Storm
    8.3k
    ...so you are an ismist. You espouse ismism.Banno

    I think he's an anti-ism-isamist

    For example, one can be a Jungian and that is not an ism.Jack Cummins

    I studied Jungianism and Mythos so, perhaps not.

    "ism" is just a bit of language, a suffix, which people associate with dogma. But really, from fascism or pacifism, it's a diverse world despite those three letters. From whence we get the notion of acrimonious schisms between the isms.
  • Amity
    4.6k
    From whence we get the notion of acrimonious schisms between the isms.Tom Storm

    Love it :100:

    The notion together with emotion and motion...
  • Cuthbert
    1.1k
    I suppose an 'ism' is, roughly, a general outlook, a point of view, an underpinning theory, an overarching framework of assumptions. It is possible to reject most isms. You can entertain a general outlook without subscribing to it. Perhaps the easiest way is ignorance, where you don't have a point of view just because you have never thought about something. Some isms are, debatably, not possible to reject. For example (debatably) it's not possible to reject the view that there is a world outside our own perceptions. The consequences of rejecting that view lead us (debatably) into incoherence and contradiction.
  • Amity
    4.6k
    It is possible to reject most isms.Cuthbert

    Of course. But an -ism has to exist before it can be rejected. There is no avoiding -isms, is there ?
    As per:
    "ism" is just a bit of language, a suffix, which people associate with dogma. But really, from fascism or pacifism, it's a diverse world despite those three letters.Tom Storm
  • Banno
    23.1k
    I think he's an anti-ism-isamistTom Storm

    AH, But antiismism is an ism; and hence self-negating.
  • Janus
    15.4k
    "There's no escape from isms"-

    Ism there?
  • Amity
    4.6k
    self-negating.Banno
    [ :smile: Yes, I know what you mean in that context, but looking further...]

    'Self negation' sounds painful :scream:
    But interesting...and hmmm... potentially harmful ? ( see my underline )
    https://selfnegation.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/on-the-meaning-of-self-negation/

    Self negation simply means doing away with those categories that limit ourselves and others from our full potential, that hinder us more than they assist our understanding.

    Self negation cannot be an individual act. White people cannot escape from ‘whiteness’ by simply acting in a way they perceive as being contrary to this identity. Rather, they must work to alter the relationship between themselves and non-whites; and this necessarily means fundamentally altering the society we live in.

    ....Let us work to negate the present society and with it those aspects of ourselves poisoned by it.

    How can you 'negate' the present society ? Extremism ?
  • baker
    5.6k
    What happens if we now say no to Nihilism too?TheMadFool
    Our teeth continue to rot as if nothing happened.
  • Nzomigni
    27
    Yes, this is very easy. Don't think in english.
  • Janus
    15.4k
    Isms are paradigms appropriate within their worlds or fields; they are the thought-out conclusions of particular premises within contexts. There is no overarching ism within which all isms must be unified, or with which particular isms must be reconciled or rejected. For example libertarianism does not have to be reconciled with eliminative materialism; or one of them rejected. Scientists don't (necessarily) preach scientism, geologists geologism, economists economism or sociologists sociologism.

    Isms are not strictly incompatible, because they work within different contexts; rather they are incommensurable. There will always be those who wish to reify them, render them overarching, though. The troubled search for a theory of everything! TOEism...
  • Valentinus
    1.6k

    Maybe it is about having an encyclopedia or not, crystallizing works to make them comparable to each other.

    Like a butterfly collection but with thoughts being held down by the pin.
  • Amity
    4.6k
    Isms are paradigms appropriate within their worlds or fields...
    There will always be those who wish to reify them, render them overarching, though. The troubled search for a theory of everything! TOEism...
    Janus

    Like a butterfly collection but with thoughts being held down by the pin.Valentinus

    What do you call a collection of -isms ?
    A bit of history on the use of -isms:

    The first recorded usage of the suffix ism as a separate word in its own right was in 1680. By the nineteenth century it was being used by Thomas Carlyle to signify a pre-packaged ideology. It was later used in this sense by such writers as Julian Huxley and George Bernard Shaw.

    In the United States of the mid-nineteenth century, the phrase "the isms" was used as a collective derogatory term to lump together the radical social reform movements of the day (such as slavery abolitionism, feminism, alcohol prohibitionism, Fourierism, pacifism, Technoism, early socialism, etc.) and various spiritual or religious movements considered non-mainstream by the standards of the time (such as Transcendentalism, spiritualism or "spirit rapping", Mormonism, the Oneida movement often accused of "free love", etc.).

    Southerners often prided themselves on the American South being free from all of these pernicious "Isms" (except for alcohol temperance campaigning, which was compatible with a traditional Protestant focus on individual morality).
    wiki

    [emphasis added ]
    Is this an American specialism ?
  • khaled
    3.5k
    Not all isms end with “ism”

    To reject all isms is another ism. “Rejectism” let’s call it.
  • Amity
    4.6k
    Not all isms end with “ism”khaled

    Example?

    To reject all isms is another ism. “Rejectism” let’s call it.khaled

    :cool: but already taken:
    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rejectism
    Rejectism is the act of people not passing the ball to you in any form of sport with a ball when you are clearly open and asking for the ball.

    It is mainly used by people who are not big participaters in sport and when they actually feel like doing something no one passes them the ball

    But then again:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rejectionism
  • Amity
    4.6k
    An A - Z of isms:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/playlists/the-a-z-of-isms
    Writers, academics and thinkers share their takes on some of the world's most important ideas (plus a few fun ones).

    Don't think in english.Nzomigni
    Non e' possibile :wink:

    Britishisms (2:43)
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/britishisms-know-your-mucker-from-your-muppet/p06dct2h?playlist=the-a-z-of-isms
  • khaled
    3.5k
    Example?Amity

    “Jungian”, “Protestant”, etc
  • Amity
    4.6k


    Re: Jungian-ism See @Tom Storm
    https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/528637

    Same goes for Protestant-ism, no ?
  • khaled
    3.5k
    Sure whatever. I don’t particularly care about this point.
  • Amity
    4.6k
    I don’t particularly care about this point.khaled

    :smile: Is that a shrugism or just a shruggie ? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • Amity
    4.6k
    What happens if we now say no to Nihilism too?
    — TheMadFool
    Our teeth continue to rot as if nothing happened.
    baker

    @TheMadFool is practising absenteethism.
  • Janus
    15.4k
    To reject all isms is another ism. “Rejectism” let’s call it.khaled

    Depends on what you mean by "reject". The purported overarching status of any ism can be rejected without that rejection being an ism, but rather just an observation of the diversity of human fields of inquiry and opinion.

    Is this an American specialism ?Amity

    Ho ho...
  • Banno
    23.1k
    The purported overarching status of any ism can be rejected without that rejection being an ismJanus

    Can it? Rejecting the purported overarching status of any ism looks like an ism...
  • Janus
    15.4k
    I don't see why. It would simply be the acknowledgement that there is no reason to believe any ism to be overarching.
  • Banno
    23.1k
    ...and those who do so are anti-isim-ists. Arn't you simply stipulation that anti-isim-ism isn't an ism? What justification could you have here? :wink:
  • Janus
    15.4k
    Not at all; I don't have to be anti-isms to make an observation about their limited natures.
  • Banno
    23.1k
    But it's not an observation; it's an opinion.
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