simplism

Crude reductive analysis

Simplism is the tendency to oversimplify complex issues, reducing them to misleadingly basic terms.

The word carries criticism—it suggests someone is ignoring nuance or important distinctions: His explanation was pure simplism, ignoring decades of research.

Unlike simplicity, which can be a virtue, simplism implies intellectual laziness or deliberate distortion.

oversimplification

reductionism

Explaining wholes through parts

superficiality · trivialization · black-and-white · binary · dichotomy · platitude · cliché · broad-brush · one-size-fits-all · cookie-cutter

philosophy

reductionism

Explaining wholes through parts

  • monismSingle-substance metaphysics
  • atomismDiscrete particles compose everything
  • mechanismMeans by which something operates

determinism · materialism · positivism · essentialism · parsimony · axiom · abstraction · distillation

fallacy

distortion

Twisting from original state

bandwagon

naivete

gullibility

Ease of being deceived

ingenuousness · artlessness · guilelessness · unworldliness · inexperience · greenness · wide-eyed · trusting · uncritical · unquestioning

Opposites
intellectual depth

simplismsophistication

Cultured elegance and complexity

depth · thoroughness · meticulousness · rigor · profundity

treatment of complexity

simplismnuance

Slight shade of difference

complexity · systems thinking · subtlety · multifacetedness · differentiation

Phrases
Family

simplicity, simplify, simplified, simplistic, simplification, simplifies, simplifying, oversimplify, oversimplified

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Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Rated G