confusionism

English

Etymology

confusion +‎ -ism

Noun

confusionism (uncountable)

1. Any doctrine or philosophy that serves to confuse people.
   • 1989, Thomas M. Kavanagh, The Limits of Theory, page 168:

     Yet it is this very proliferation that has induced Stanley Fish to proclaim the imminent demise of theory, a demise whose most telling symptom is precisely the "noise" generated by theory. Commenting on and extending Fish's line of argument, Vincent Descombes argues that we have entered a phase of theoretical confusionism that makes it difficult to determine what theory is.

   • 2012, A. Kioupkiolis, Freedom After the Critique of Foundations:

     Let us not forget, moreover, that objectivism still boasts staunch defenders in contemporary thought, who typically level facile charges of confusionism or obtuseness against so called 'postmodern scepticism' […]

2. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) A strategy of maintaining confusion in the minds and preventing objective analysis.

Translations

a strategy of maintaining confusion

• French: confusionnisme (fr)
• Russian: запутаи́зм m (zaputaízm)