philistinism
Disdain for art
Philistinism is hostility or indifference to art, culture, and intellectual pursuits.
A philistine values only the practical and material, dismissing literature, music, and ideas as useless: The city's philistinism made it hard to fund the symphony.
The term carries contempt—an accusation that someone lacks refinement or curiosity about things beyond commerce and comfort.
Absence of knowledge
- uncouthnessLack of polish
- anti-intellectualismHostility toward educated thought
- boorishnessCrude, uncouth conduct
- narrow-mindednessClosed thinking, limited perspective
lowbrow · middlebrow · materialism · vulgarity · crudeness · tastelessness · shallowness · superficiality
Lacking refinement or education
- unsophisticatedLacking refinement or complexity
- unrefinedNot processed or polished
- artlessLacking deceit or cunning
- kitschTasteless, garish art
commercialism · mass-market · mainstream · conformity · conventionality · mediocrity · banality · blandness
ignorance
Absence of knowledge
- uncouthnessLack of polish
- anti-intellectualismHostility toward educated thought
- boorishnessCrude, uncouth conduct
narrow-mindedness · lowbrow · middlebrow · materialism · vulgarity · crudeness · tastelessness · shallowness · superficiality · closed-mindedness
uncultured
Lacking refinement or education
- unsophisticatedLacking refinement or complexity
- unrefinedNot processed or polished
- artlessLacking deceit or cunning
kitsch · commercialism · mass-market · mainstream · conformity · conventionality · mediocrity · banality · blandness · commodification
- tastebitter, salty, taste, sour, sweet
- gracelessnessclumsiness, awkwardness, boorishness, rudeness, vulgarity
philistinismaestheticism
Valuing beauty above ethics
connoisseurship · cultivation · refinement · sophistication · artistry
philistinismintellectualism
Emphasis on reasoning pursuits
erudition · cognizance · enlightenment · understanding · knowledge