phobosophy
/fɒˈbɒsəfɪ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
25
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "The great advantage of anti-philosophical philosophy, or what we might call phobosophy or fear of abstract knowledge, was that it enabled you to take the world exactly as you found it and adapt yourself to it to your own best advantage."
- "It is a remarkable doctrine which,[…f]ar from being “a philosophy of religion,” it is much rather a phobosophy, a fear of knowledge — neither essentially philosophic nor religious."
- "Philosophy is, literally, the love of knowledge; phobosophy is the fear of it. There are obviously more “phobosophers” in the world than philosophers."
- "Bernal believed strongly that the whole of modern philosophy, save for Marxism, had let the spirit of the Enlightenment down, which he blamed on the rise of phobosophy or the fear of abstract thinking."
- "‘[T]he best thoughts [of these scholars] could well be omitted’?? There must be a mistake. I couldn’t imagine such a severe case of phobosophy."
Etymology
Coined by John Desmond Bernal in The Freedom of Necessity (1949): phobo- (“fear”) + -sophy (“wisdom, knowledge”), in contradistinction with philosophy; compare sophophobia.
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /fɒˈbɒsəfɪ/
Usage
Derived Forms
phobosopher