释义 |
presentist, n. (a.)|ˈprɛzəntɪst| [f. present a. + -ist.] An advocate of the present; in quot. 1878, one who believes that the prophecies of Scripture, esp. of the Apocalypse, are at present in course of fulfilment: opp. to preterist and futurist. Also, one who has a bias towards the present or is influenced by present-day attitudes. Also attrib. or as adj. Hence ˈpresentism.
1878H. G. Guinness End of Age (1880) 93 Three distinct classes..denominated Preterist, Futurist and Presentist schemes of interpretation. 1927[see passéisme]. 1956N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 8 Jan. 22/3, I think Mr. Nevins' review underscores the danger of ‘presentism’; I suggest historians would strengthen their position by applying the chief test of their profession—perspective and caution in contemporary analyses. 1975Nature 24 Apr. 729/3 Such history as is dealt with reads soundly, but it is often drawn from secondary sources and professional historians of science would judge it presentist and Whiggish. 1976T. Stoianovich French Hist. Method i. 36 Even the attempt to understand the past in its own terms is ‘presentist’ to the extent that it is founded on what contemporary science and bias lead us to believe to have been its own terms. 1977Times Lit. Suppl. 27 May 655/1 The author wants to explain how the world got to be the way it is at the start of the last quarter of the twentieth century. ‘Presentism’ accordingly governs the way he distributes attention. |