Meliorism
Meliorism (from Latin meliorare ' to improve' ) describes in philosophy and sociology the " improvement " of people, their relationships and the social, economic and cultural structures that determine their way of life. Its root word can also be found in melioration , which, however, in contrast to this, designates an “improvement” or cultivation in soil science , landscape management or water management .
The social science term originated in US pragmatism at the end of the 19th century and was first coined by the mathematician Charles Sanders Peirce . It was later borrowed from his friend and psychologist William James . Both were best known as philosophers.
In addition to positions that are optimistic about progress and have a humanistic or pragmatic basis, there are also socio-technological variants up to the eugenic melioration of the human being, which emerged particularly clearly under National Socialism . In Lester Frank Ward's sociology , melioration is thought of as the containment of an unchecked social Darwinism . The human intellect has the task of modulating the evolution of man and society and promoting welfare through social planning . To the extent that melioration is always linked to ethical and moral ideas of a better life, today melioration can be combined in particular with a biophilic attitude ( biophilia ) that takes up the idea of sustainability and questions the consumerist lifestyle of the western world.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Felicitas Krämer: Diversity of experience and reality . On William James' understanding of reality (dissertation, 2004). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-525-30520-6 , pp. 75 ( google.de ).