VOCABULARY OF PHILOSOPHY – ACOSMIST

ACOSMIST (α, priv., and κόσμος, world), one who theoretically denies the existence of the universe as distinct from the Absolute Being. «Spinoza did not deny the existence of God; he denied the existence of the world; he was consequently an acosmist, and not an atheist» (Lewes, Biog. Hist, of Phil, p. 1). «It has of late been a favourite criticism of Spinoza, to say with Hegel, that his system is not atheism but acosmism; and this is true in a speculative point of view. But if I allow of no God distinct from the aggregate of the universe, myself included, what object have I of worship? Or if, according to the latter manifestations of pantheism, the Divine Mind is but the sum total of every finite consciousness, my own included, what religious relation between God and man is compatible with the theory?And, accordingly, the pantheism of Hegel has found its natural development in the atheism of Feuerbach» (Mansel, Prol. Log., p. 279, note, 2nd ed., p. 298).The philosophy of Berkeley has been erroneously described as acosmism.

VOCABULARY OF PHILOSOPHY – ACOSMIST

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