this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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Oh god I hope none of them lmao
...you deliberately want to use a definition that precisely zero anarchist philosophers or thinkers use for anarchist thought?
That seems rather... silly? How can you critique or even talk about the ideas of anarchism without using the definition anarchists actually use? Do you expect anarchists to use a different term than the one already established in the literature?
If your favorite fantasy fiction genre uses a wildly different definition than the vast majority of people, but also the same but sort of not, then maybe you should take your arguments up with dictionary and encyclopedia publishers.
I am sure that if you presented the trite-philosophers own breif definitions to each other or gave them a series of examples to decide Anarchy or Not-Anarchy then they would all disagree with each other.
but the dictionary does use one similar to the academic definition...
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anarchism
if we use dictionary.com
"the principles or practice of anarchists"
so you're wrong by your own source
anarchist thinkers, philosophers and academics should obviously get to define the term, no? Dictionaries are often wrong in countless ways for academic usage because the meaning of words are often more complex than can be summarized in one paragraph, dictionaries are not ultimate references, and ANYONE can create a dictionary, these are not academically primarily sourced documents these are what some guy thinks a word means based on a survey of some people who claim to, in no way shape or form should dictionaries be used in place of foundational documents and the notion that they are perfect and the best way to derive the meaning of any word is false...
both of your references are literally designed to be summaries of topics as quickly as possible, and often contain glaring inaccuracies, in academia you aren't even allowed to cite an encyclopedia, or a dictionary, and this is for good reason.
"Who writes the dictionary? Where do they get their information and authority? What if the dictionary has a typo, misprint, or error? If nobody catches an error, does that mean everybody is "secretly incorrect"? If tomorrow the Academie française publishes a new dictionary that states all /i/ vowels are pronounced [a], does that make swiftly ~80 million native French speakers incorrect?" --another comment on the matter i found elsewhere
Me and DonPiano already had this discussion, Merriam-Webster dictionary page for Anarchy is verbatim what I said.
but not for "anarchism"
1: a political theory holding all forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and advocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups
2: the advocacy or practice of anarchistic principles
anarchy is not anarchism and the terms are not interchangeable, though they sound similar
Who created and established anarchistic principles? Anarchist thinkers and philosophers, of course
You're gonna sit there and pretend Anarchism has nothing to do with Anarchy? You're not even arguing against anything I've said anymore lmao
the definitions in the dictionary you provided conflict, how do you explain that, if not that they are not synonyms?
They don't provide conflict, you just have a skill issue with reading the dictionary.
you simultaneously hope that no anarchist philosophers agree with you, and use a definition that says
"the advocacy or practice of anarchistic principles"
Who established anarchistic principles, exactly, if not anarchists?
Do you think Apples wrote the definition of an Orchard?
No and I don't see how that is relevant or comparable.
lmao