Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The philosophy of Spencer and Fiske, which asserts the existence of a real unknowable outside of the mind, the absolute relativity of all thought to ourselves, and that there is no knowledge except what is ultimately empirical science. It is specially opposed to the systems of Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hamilton, and Comte.
  • noun The doctrine that the material universe works automatically; affirmative atheism.
  • noun The ethical doctrine which makes the welfare of mankind the highest good.
  • noun A name applied to the system of philosophy based on the doctrine of evolution as enunciated by Herbert Spencer. See philosophy of evolution, under evolution.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Roughly three years ago, in Los Angeles, I had the pleasure of watching a film by David Wilson, founder of the Museum of Jurassic Technology, with Wilson himself, about Russian cosmism.

    Exit Oil 2009

  • But these are bound up in all philosophies of creation as opposed to cosmism.

    Caesar and Cleopatra George Bernard Shaw 1903

  • They believed that the resurrection of Soviet/Russian cosmism should go along with an alliance with Iran to confront the West, mostly the US, whose philosophy and political/economic arrangements were completely different from those of Russia.

    Asia Times Online 2010

  • These stunning achievements had led to a revival of what was called "Russian cosmism".

    Asia Times Online 2010

Comments

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  • Belief that the cosmos is a self-existing whole. (from Phrontistery)

    May 25, 2008

  • Also Russian Cosmism, which was associated with immortalism.

    July 17, 2009