pluralism

English

Etymology

plural +‎ -ism

Pronunciation

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Noun

pluralism (countable and uncountable, plural pluralisms)

1. The quality or state of being plural, or in the plural number.
   • 2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 1017:

     Polytheism was inherently tolerant of the worship of many gods, because no single god was thought to control all the phenomena that are vital for human life. The gods were believed to tolerate this pluralism, and several could be worshiped in the same sanctuary or addressed in the same prayer.

2. (ecclesiastical) The state of a pluralist; the holding of more than one ecclesiastical living at a time.
3. (sociology) A social system that permits smaller groups within a society to maintain their individual cultural identities.
   • 2007, Matthias Koenig with Paul F. A. Guchteneire, Unesco, Democracy and Human Rights in Multicultural Societies, page 251:

     Instead, it is more probable that globalization is leading to a plurality of pluralisms.

4. (politics) The belief that there should be diverse and competing centers of power in society.
5. (politics) The acknowledgement of a diversity of political systems.
6. (law) The existence of differing legal systems in a population or area.
7. (philosophy) The belief that values can be simultaneously antagonistic and incommensurable.
   • 2006, Connie Aarsbergen-Ligtvoet, Isaiah Berlin: A Value Pluralist and Humanist View of Human Nature and the Meaning of Live, →ISBN:

     Due to pluralism and conflicts within the good itself, such perfection, for Berlin, is not possible. A compromise does not brin us closer to a higher telos in history.

   • 2016, Stuart Firestein, Failure: Why Science is So Successful, page 217:

     Pluralism is a creative force because it admits of multiple ways to see a thing, multiple valuable paths to choose from.

8. (philosophy) The belief that a plural predicate refers to its individuals rather than to a collective.
   • 2014, Salvatore Florio, “Untyped Pluralism”, in Mind‎^[1], volume 123, number 490, pages 317–337:
   • 2015, Michael Rieppel, “Pluralities and Plural Logic”, in Analysis‎^[2], volume 75, number 3, pages 504–514:

Synonyms

• (ecclesiastical): plurality

Derived terms

• religious pluralism
• strategic pluralism

 

Related terms

• plural
• pluralist
• pluralistic

Translations

quality or state of being plural

• Finnish: monikollisuus (fi)
• Irish: iolrachas m
• Manx: yl-raghys m
• Romanian: pluralism (ro) n
• Russian: мно́жественность (ru) f (mnóžestvennostʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: pluralizam (sh) m

state of pluralist

• Finnish: pluralismi (fi)
• Romanian: pluralism (ro) n
• Serbo-Croatian: pluralizam (sh) m

social system with multiple cultural identities

• Bulgarian: плурализъм (bg) m (pluralizǎm)
• Catalan: pluralisme m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 多元主義／多元主义 (duōyuánzhǔyì)

• Czech: pluralismus m
• Dutch: pluralisme (nl) n
• Finnish: moniarvoisuus (fi), pluralismi (fi)
• French: pluralisme (fr) m
• Galician: pluralismo m
• Georgian: პლურალიზმი (ṗluralizmi)
• German: Pluralismus (de) m
• Hindi: बहुलवाद (bahulvād), अनेकवाद (anekvād)
• Irish: iolrachas m
• Italian: pluralismo (it) m
• Japanese: 多元主義 (たげんしゅぎ, tagenshugi)
• Kazakh: плюрализм (plüralizm)
• Manx: yl-raghys m
• Portuguese: pluralismo m
• Romanian: pluralism (ro) n
• Russian: плюрали́зм (ru) m (pljuralízm)
• Serbo-Croatian: pluralizam (sh) m
• Spanish: pluralismo m
• Ukrainian: плюралі́зм (uk) m (pljuralízm)

philosophy

• Hindi: बहुतत्त्ववाद (bahutattvavād), बहुत्ववाद (bahutvavād)

References

• “pluralism”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Guy Ankerl: Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bhrati, Chinese, and Western. INUPress, Geneva, 2000 →ISBN

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French pluralisme. By surface analysis, plural +‎ -ism.

Noun

pluralism n (uncountable)

1. pluralism

Declension

declension of pluralism (singular only)

	singular
n gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) pluralism	pluralismul
genitive/dative	(unui) pluralism	pluralismului
vocative	pluralismule