Chronological snobbery is the argument that the thinking, art or science of an earlier time is inherently inferior to that of the present simply because it came first, or the related belief that people of earlier periods must have been less intelligent because civilization has since advanced. The writer and scholar C. S. Lewis, together with Owen Barfield, coined the term, and Lewis first described it in his 1955 autobiographical work Surprised by Joy; the concept is considered a form of the broader appeal to novelty.
Facts
Core ClaimChronological snobbery is the assumption that an idea, or the people who held it, must be inferior simply because it belongs to an earlier time, without asking whether the idea was ever actually refuted. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Sources
1. Wikipedia: Chronological snobbery
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia: Chronological snobbery, lead paragraph
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.
Wikipedia: Chronological snobbery, lead paragraph (term coined)
The term was coined by C. S. Lewis and Owen Barfield, and first mentioned by Lewis in his 1955 autobiographical work, Surprised by Joy.
lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
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.
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