possibilismn.
/ˈpɒsᵻbᵻlɪz(ə)m/, /ˈpɒsᵻbl̩ɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˈpɑsəbəˌlɪz(ə)m/ 1. Politics. Belief in or advocacy of moderate (rather than violent or revolutionary) policies aiming to bring about immediately practicable or feasible reforms; pragmatic reformism.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > politics > political philosophy > specific political theories or doctrines > [noun] > other political theories or doctrines
white supremacy1824
gradualism1835
reformism1838
restrictionism1840
mutualism1842
new politics1844
perpetualism1849
economism1850
progressivism1855
possibilism1883
radicalism1899
maximalism1909
radical feminism1912
Eurasianism1922
communalism1923
los von Rom1923
voluntarism1924
exceptionalism1929
third way1935
cultural Marxism1938
quislingism1940
identitarianism1943
libertarianism1948
one-worldism1948
renewalism1965
ecologism1969
Third Worldism1970
ecofeminism1980
communitarian1984
1883 Boston Daily Globe 23 Mar. Anarchism, Collectivism, Socialism and Possibilism. the Downfall of MacMahon.
1903 N.Y. Times 8 Feb. 4/5 Neither The Opportunism of Gambetta Nor The Possibilism of Joffrin survived its leader... They rejected with scorn the new Possibilism, or, to give it an equally descriptive name, the Opportunism.
1915 G. B. Shaw in New Statesman 23 Jan. 386/2 Having noticed that modern Secularism, Materialism, Rationalism: in short, Possibilism, have brought the minds of Mr Blatchford and Mr McCabe to a dead stop..they [sc. the Chestertons]..have frankly embraced Impossibilism.
1954 G. D. H. Cole Hist. Socialist Thought II. xv. 248 Paul Brousse's Possibilism, which stressed the importance of reform within capitalism, was definitely unorthodox doctrine.
1986 New Yorker 21 July 82/3 A statement sneering at..their refusal to change their ‘culture of possibilism’ for what the Peronists call a ‘culture of liberation’.
2001 D. J. Whittaker Terrorism Reader (2002) ix. 130 In 1962..student activists in ETA, increasingly dissatisfied with the moderate nationalism of the rather conservative Basque Nationalist Party whose rhetoric they contemptuously referred to as ‘possibilism’, took a more vigorous stance.
2. Geography. The belief that human freedom of action is not limited by the natural world.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > doctrines or theories
mutualism1842
pluralism1917
possibilism1925
primitivism1934
universalism1939
particularism1949
unilinealism1957
1925 H. Berr in E. G. Mountford & J. H. Paxton tr. L. Febvre Geogr. Introd. Hist. p. xi He [sc. Febvre] has found striking formulae in which to state the question precisely. Against the geographical determinism of Ratzel he sets the possibilism of Vidal de la Blache.
1951 G. Tatham in T. G. Taylor Geogr. in 20th Cent. vi. 151 The development of Possibilism is closely linked with the writings of Vidal de la Blache and Brunnes in France.
1965 H. Sprout & M. Sprout Ecol. Perspective v. 83 The doctrine called environmental possibilism, or simply possibilism, represents an historic reversal of perspective towards man-milieu relationships.
1974 J. F. Kolars & J. D. Nystuen Geogr. xx. 375 The message of possibilism is that the environment offers not one, but many, paths for human activities and development.
1997 Geogr. Jrnl. 163 43 These findings are then input to a discussion on the possibilism vs. environmental determinism debate..in an attempt to moderate existing cut-and-dried theories on population growth.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1883