Chronological snobbery is an argument that the thinking, art, or science of an earlier time is inherently inferior to that of the present, simply by virtue of its temporal priority or the belief that since civilization has advanced in certain areas, people of earlier periods were less intelligent. The term was coined by
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...
and
Owen Barfield
Arthur Owen Barfield (9 November 1898 – 14 December 1997) was a British philosopher, author, poet, critic, and member of the Inklings.
Life
Barfield was born in London, to Elizabeth (née Shoults; 1860–1940) and Arthur Edward Barfield (1864 ...
, and first mentioned by Lewis in his 1955 autobiographical work, ''
Surprised by Joy''. Chronological snobbery is a form of
appeal to novelty
The appeal to novelty (also called appeal to modernity or ''argumentum ad novitatem'') is a fallacy in which one prematurely claims that an idea or proposal is correct or superior, ''exclusively'' because it is new and modern. In a controversy b ...
.
Explanation
As Barfield explains it, it is the belief that "intellectually, humanity languished for countless generations in the most childish errors on all sorts of crucial subjects, until it was redeemed by some simple scientific dictum of the last century." The subject came up between them when Barfield had converted to
Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...
and was seeking to get Lewis (an
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
at the time) to join him. One of Lewis's objections was that religion was simply outdated, and in ''
Surprised by Joy'' (chapter 13, pp. 207–208), he describes how this was fallacious:
A manifestation of chronological snobbery is the usage in general of the word "medieval" to mean "backwards".
[C. S. Lewis in ''Surprised by Joy'' (Chapter 13, p. 206) Quote: "'Why—damn it—it's ''medieval'',' I exclaimed; for I still had all the chronological snobbery of my period and used the names of the earlier periods as terms of abuse."]
See also
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Declinism
Declinism is the belief that a society or institution is tending towards decline. Particularly, it is the predisposition, caused by cognitive biases such as rosy retrospection, to view the past more favourably and the future more negatively. "The ...
*
Genetic fallacy
The genetic fallacy (also known as the fallacy of origins or fallacy of virtue) is a fallacy of irrelevance in which arguments or information are dismissed or validated based solely on their source of origin rather than their content. In other word ...
*
Historian's fallacy
The historian's fallacy is an informal fallacy that occurs when one assumes that decision makers of the past viewed events from the same perspective and having the same information as those subsequently analyzing the decision. It is not to be confu ...
*
Myth of progress
Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension wi ...
*
Presentism (literary and historical analysis)
In literary and historical analysis, presentism is the anachronistic introduction of present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Some modern historians seek to avoid presentism in their work because they con ...
*
Whig history
Whig history (or Whig historiography) is an approach to historiography that presents history as a journey from an oppressive and benighted past to a "glorious present". The present described is generally one with modern forms of liberal democracy ...
References
External links
Chronological Snobbery at Encyclopedia BarfieldianaC. S. Lewis on Chronological SnobberyChronological Snobbery at Summa Bergania
{{Fallacies
1950s neologisms
C. S. Lewis
Relevance fallacies