pluralism
Pluralism names the view or order that affirms many principles, groups or standpoints instead of one sole norm, and historically a cleric holding several church livings at once.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Definitions
- A philosophical claim that reality rests on many primary, qualitatively distinct substances or principles rather than on a single underlying one (the standing contrast with monism).
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - In politics and social thought: a model in which many communities, cultures or interests may stand on equal footing inside a shared order, instead of all being forced under one imposed norm.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - In journalism and casual speech: a loose label for a multiplicity of standpoints, views or practices on one issue, often without a strict philosophical or constitutional cut.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - In church history (especially older Anglican practice): the holding by one cleric of more than one ecclesiastical living or benefice at the same time.
source
Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (Pluralism, Pluralist), open source
Examples
- The seminar opened by asking whether metaphysical pluralism can stand without assuming indefinitely many substances.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - Her thesis lined social pluralism up against monism, marking where equal standing for groups ends.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - In the church-history handbook benefice pluralism meant one cleric holding several prebends at once.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - The columnist used pluralism as a stand-in for "many views at once", though the point was only a loose plurality of opinions.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - He weighed cultural pluralism against conformity and absolutism, asking where equal room for groups stops and one imposed norm begins.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Usage
In ordinary English pluralism often tags multiplicity: many standpoints, many cultures, many interests on one issue. Scholarly prose gains clarity when four layers stay apart: the metaphysical thesis of many substances, a political model of equal standing for groups, a historical church sense of several livings in one person, and a rhetorical figure. Pamphlets smear those layers together. State plainly whether you mean a doctrine, a civic order, a benefice practice, or a jab. Otherwise the word melts into tolerance, relativism and simple many-voiced talk.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Webster 1913 ties Pluralism to plurality itself (including grammatical plurality) and to the church office in which one person holds several livings at once. Pluralist names a clergyman with more than one benefice; Plurality goes back to Latin pluralitas. Skeat 1910 under PLURAL gives OF plurel and modern French pluriel from Latin pluralis (plus, pluris), with derivatives pluralist and pluralism. Those public-domain lemmas supply the lexical facts; this entry wording is written separately and does not copy dictionary phrasing.
source
Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913; W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 1910, open sourceFrequent pairings are philosophical pluralism, social pluralism, cultural pluralism, critique of pluralism, and defence of pluralism. As a noun pluralist labels someone who holds the view (or, in the older church sense, a multi-benefice cleric); pluralistic serves as the adjective. Careful writers keep the lemma clear of monism (one principle), bare absolutism talk about one sole power, relativism that dissolves every norm, and casual many-voices talk that only notes disagreement. Borders still shift by author.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Morphologically the noun joins plural (from Latin pluralis, "relating to more than one", itself from plus, pluris, "more") to the -ism ending. Webster already carries Pluralism, Pluralist and Plurality; Skeat records PLURAL with the pluralism and pluralist set. Our senses lean on those open sources plus editorial wording, not on a modern encyclopaedia paraphrase. Treating the label as mere rhetorical multiplicity alone softens the claim that many principles or many groups truly ground order.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Word forms
Regular English noun, usually uncountable; the plural pluralisms is rare and marks distinct kinds or historical versions of the stance.
word forms
| przypadek | forma |
|---|---|
| singular | pluralism |
| plural | pluralisms |
Word forms: Editorial team
Collocations
- philosophical pluralism
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - social pluralism
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - cultural pluralism
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - critique of pluralism
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - defence of pluralism
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Synonyms · Antonyms
source
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open sourcesource
Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open sourceEtymology
source
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open sourcealso
W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910, open sourceRelated words
- pluralist , noun: person who holds pluralism; also (older church sense) clergyman with more than one benefice (Webster 1913 Pluralist; Skeat PLURAL derivatives)
- pluralistic , adjective: pertaining to pluralism or plurality
- plural , related adjective and base: more than one; from Latin pluralis (Webster Pluralism; Skeat PLURAL)
- plurality , related noun: state of being plural; from Latin pluralitas (Webster 1913 Plurality; Skeat 1910 Der. plural-i-ty under PLURAL)
- monism , related noun (contrastive): claim that reality rests on one principle rather than many
- pluralizm , etymologically related Polish noun
Related entries
The same entry in Polish: pluralizm
Questions and answers
What does pluralism mean?
In philosophy it names the thesis that being rests on many irreducible substances or principles. In politics and social thought it can mean equal standing for many communities inside a shared order. In church history it can mean one cleric holding several livings. Outside campus talk it often means any multiplicity of standpoints. Scope follows register.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)How does pluralism differ from monism?
Pluralism affirms many distinct principles or substances; monism affirms one. Webster 1913 under Pluralism speaks of plurality as a condition. Casual speech often confuses both labels with relativism and simple many-voiced talk. Scope still depends on the author.
source
Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open sourceIs pluralism the same as mere diversity of opinion?
No. Diversity of opinion is any spread of views. Pluralism, in the stricter philosophical and political senses, claims that many principles or many groups really ground order. Rhetoric often borrows the label for many-voices talk without that claim.
source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Where does the word pluralism come from?
The formation joins plural (Latin pluralis from plus, pluris, "more") to -ism. Webster 1913 opens Pluralism from the state of being plural and the multi-benefice church sense, listing Pluralist and Plurality. Skeat 1910 has PLURAL from OF. plurel and French pluriel, traced to Latin pluralis, with plural-ism and plural-ist. The English lemma follows that Latin path.