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Obscurantism () is the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or the full details of some matter from becoming known. There are two common historical and intellectual denotations to ''Obscurantism'': (1) deliberately restricting knowledge — opposition to the dissemination of knowledge, a policy of withholding knowledge from the state schools for the public; and, (2) deliberate obscurity — an abstruse style (as in literature and art) characterized by deliberate vagueness.〔(Merriam-Webster Online, "Obscurantism" ), retrieved on 4 August 2007.〕〔''Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary'' (1996) p. 1,337〕 The adjective-name ''Obscurantist'' identifies the man or woman who actively opposes social reform and enlightenment, a type of anti-intellectual.〔''The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'' (1993) p. 1,967.〕 The term ''obscurantism'' derives from the title of the 16th-century satire ''Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum'' (1515–19, ''Letters of Obscure Men''), that was based upon the intellectual dispute between the German humanist Johann Reuchlin and the monk Johannes Pfefferkorn of the Dominican Order, about whether or not all Jewish books should be burned as un-Christian heresy. Earlier, in 1509, the monk Pfefferkorn had obtained permission from Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1486–1519), to burn all copies of the Talmud (Jewish law and Jewish ethics) known to be in the Holy Roman Empire (AD 926–1806); the ''Letters of Obscure Men'' satirized the Dominican arguments for burning "un-Christian" works. In the 18th century, Enlightenment philosophers applied the term ''obscurantist'' to any enemy of intellectual enlightenment and the liberal diffusion of knowledge. In the 19th century, in distinguishing the varieties of obscurantism found in metaphysics and theology from the "more subtle" obscurantism of the critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and of modern philosophical skepticism, Friedrich Nietzsche said: "The essential element in the black art of obscurantism is not that it wants to darken individual understanding, but that it wants to blacken our picture of the world, and darken our idea of existence."〔Nietzsche, F. (1878) ''Human, All Too Human'' Vol. II, Part 1, 27. Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (November 13, 1996). ISBN 978-0-521-56704-6〕 == Restricting knowledge == In restricting knowledge to an élite ruling class of "the few", obscurantism is fundamentally anti-democratic, because its component anti-intellectualism and elitism exclude the people as intellectually unworthy of knowing the facts and truth about the government of their City-State.〔Seymour M. Hersh, ("Selective Intelligence" ), ''The New Yorker'', 12 May 2003, accessed June 1, 2007.〕〔Brian Doherty, ("Origin of the Specious: Why Do Neoconservatives Doubt Darwin?" ), ''Reason Online'' July 1997, accessed 16 February 2007.〕 In 18th century monarchic France, the Marquis de Condorcet, as a political scientist, documented the aristocracy's obscurantism about the social problems that provoked the French Revolution (1789–99) that deposed them and their King, Louis XVI of France. In the 19th century, the mathematician William Kingdon Clifford, an early proponent of Darwinism, devoted some writings to uprooting obscurantism in England, after hearing clerics — who privately agreed with him about evolution — publicly denounce evolution as un-Christian. Moreover, in the realm of organized religion, obscurantism is a distinct strain of thought independent of theologic allegiance. The distinction is that fundamentalism presupposes sincere religious belief, whereas obscurantism is based upon minority manipulation of the popular faith as political praxis, (cf. Censorship).〔Syed, I. (2002) ("Obscurantism" ). From: ''Intellectual Achievements of Muslims''. New Delhi: Star Publications. Excerpt available online. Retrieved on: 4 August 2007.〕 The obscurantist can be personally a scientist, a philosopher, a truly faithful person, a naturalist, a mischievous student, or just agnostic, but, as one member of the society, believes that religion among the populace serves the aim of social control. To that effect, the obscurant limits the publication, extension, and dissemination of knowledge, of evidence countering the common-belief ''status quo'' with which the nation are ruled — the local variety of the necessary Noble Lie, introduced to political discourse by the Classical Greek philosopher Plato in 380 BC. Hence the "stable-''status quo'' restriction of knowledge" denotation of ''obscurantism'' applied by pro-science reformers within religious movements,〔 and by skeptics such as H.L. Mencken in critiquing religion.〔Mencken, H.L. (2002). ''H.L. Mencken on Religion''. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-57392-982-0〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Obscurantism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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