noun An advocate of despotism, or of absolute government. In metaphysics, one who maintains that there is an absolute or non-relative existence, and that it is possible to know or conceive it.
Of or pertaining to absolutism; despotic; absolutistic.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
adjective Of or pertaining to absolutism; arbitrary; despotic.
noun One who is in favor of an absolute or autocratic government.
noun (Metaph.) One who believes that it is possible to realize a cognition or concept of the absolute.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun one who advocates absolutism
adjective pertaining to the principle of totalitarianism
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From absolute + -ist after French absolutiste.
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Examples
Yet the wording of the amendment did not change when its scope changed; it is still written in absolutist terms.
Not long ago, a close comrade of mine was dining with a person who I can't identify beyond telling you that his father is a long-term absolutist ruler of an Arab Muslim state.
I also think he has his share of issues (far less than Bush’s issues mind you), as I, unlike you, do not see the world in absolutist’s shades of black and white, but in a million different colors … (this means I have no heros, idols or unrealistic expectations from anyone).
After all, the idea of absolutist tolerance exists for purposes beyond mediating athletic rivalries among coworkers and arbitrating those heated debates as to whether chocolate or vanilla is the better flavor of ice cream.
For all of the Founding Fathers 'wisdom, for the blessings of the Decelaration of Indpenedence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they were at the end of the day lawless revolutionaries fighting against the God-ordained government of their rightful King (this should not be taken as support for the idea of absolutist monarchy or the divine right of kings since a non-monarchical government would have the same' divine 'foundation, as does our Republic today; the State legislatures were also not empowered to act on behalf of their citizens in any way that outweighed the rights of the centralized monarchy at that time).
In fact, it was practised with great effect by Barack Obama during his presidential campaign - helping convince even conservative 'absolutist' voters to embrace a very 'systemic' concept of Change.
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