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Article: Obscurantism.(Opinion & Editorial)
- Article from:
- Manila Bulletin
- Article date:
- May 7, 2005
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OBSCURANTISM is a word thats no longer used these days. In the forties, it was a favorite of literary and social critics. The dictionary defined it as "a deprecation of or positive opposition to enlightenment or the spread of knowledge, especially a policy (as in art or science) of deliberately making obscure or withholding knowledge from the general public," also a "style (as in literature and art) characterized by haziness and lack of sharp definition."
A good example of obscurantism was a chapter in Rizals Fili entitled, "Class in Physics," in which a friar confused students with definitions so numerous that they learned nothing.
The word has been ...