cosmicism
Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- noun The literary philosophy developed by the American writer H.P. Lovecraft, stating that there is no recognizable divine presence, such as God, in the universe, and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence.
Examples
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A defining theme of the Cthulhu Mythos is what Lovecraft termed cosmicism: a bleak existential conception of humanity as being completely inconsequential in the grand scope of the universe, at the mercy of far more powerful alien creatures, like Cthulhu, who regard us as pawns or insignificant insects.
Dan Alban, 'Spirit of Lovecraft Haunts Cambridge, New England,' Harvard Law Record, October 21, 2005
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But what makes Lovecraft so overwhelming to sympathetic readers isn't his sometimes overheated prose--any more than the Grand Guignol of his plots (revival of the dead, the swapping of minds, aliens among us) or his philosophy of 'cosmicism,' which reduces mankind's role in the universe to a bit part, hardly even a walk-on. What matters is that he possesses the storyteller's greatest gift, the one Nabokov called shamanstvo: the 'enchanter quality.'
Michael Dirda, ‘The Horror! The Horror!’ Weekly Standard, March 7, 2005
Note
‘Cosmic’ comes from the Greek ‘kosmikos,’ universe.
