In the fields ofphilosophy and ofaesthetics, the termphilistinism describes the attitudes, habits, and characteristics of a person who deprecatesart,beauty,spirituality, andintellect.[1] As a derogatory term,philistine describes a person who is narrow-minded and hostile tothe life of the mind, whosematerialistic andwealth-oriented worldview and tastes indicate an indifference to cultural and aesthetic values.[2]
The contemporary meaning ofphilistine derives fromMatthew Arnold's adaptation to English of the German wordPhilister, as applied byuniversity students in their antagonistic relations with the townspeople ofJena,early modern Germany, where a riot resulted in several deaths in 1689. Preaching about the riot,Georg Heinrich Götze, the ecclesiastical superintendent, applied the wordPhilister in his sermon analysing thesocial class hostilities between students and townspeople.[3][4] Götze addressed thetown-vs-gown matter with an admonishing sermon, "The Philistines Be Upon Thee", drawn from theBook of Judges (Chapt.16, Samson vs the Philistines), of theOld Testament.[5][6]
In German usage,university students applied the termPhilister (Philistine) to describe a person who was not trained at university; in thesocial context of early modern Germany, the term identified the man (Philister) and woman (Philisterin) who was not from the university.[1]
In Britain, the termphilistine—a person hostile to aesthetic and intellectual discourse—was in common use by the 1820s, and was applied to thebourgeois,materialistic, merchantmiddle class of theVictorian Era (1837–1901), whose newly acquiredsocial status andwealth rendered some of them hostile to cultural traditions which favoredaristocratic power. Regarding the philistines,Matthew Arnold wrote inCulture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism (1869):
Now, the use of culture is that it helps us, by means of its spiritual standard of perfection, to regard wealth as but machinery, and not only to say as a matter of words that we regard wealth as but machinery, but really to perceive and feel that it is so. If it were not for this purging effect wrought upon our minds by culture, the whole world, the future, as well as the present, would inevitably belong to the Philistines. The people who believe most that our greatness and welfare are proved by our being very rich, and who most give their lives and thoughts to becoming rich, are just the people whom we call the Philistines. Culture says: "Consider these people, then, their way of life, their habits, their manners, the very tones of their voices; look at them attentively; observe the literature they read, the things which give them pleasure, the words which come forth out of their mouths, the thoughts which make the furniture of their minds; would any amount of wealth be worth having with the condition that one was to become just like these people by having it?"
— Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism (1869), pp. 28–29.
The denotations and connotations of the termsphilistinism andphilistine describe people who are hostile toart,culture, and thelife of the mind, and, in their stead, favoreconomic materialism andconspicuous consumption as paramount human activities.[7]
Whilst involved in a lawsuit, the writer and poetJonathan Swift (1667–1745), in the slang of his time, described a gruff bailiff as a philistine, someone who is considered a merciless enemy.[1]
ThepolymathJohann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) described the philistine personality, by asking:
What is a philistine? A hollow gut, full of fear and hope that God will have mercy!
Goethe described such men and women, by noting that:
The Philistine not only ignores all conditions of life which are not his own, but also demands that the rest of mankind should fashion its mode of existence after his own.[8]
In thecomedy of manners play,The Rivals (1775),Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) identifies a violent aristocrat as 'that bloodthirsty Philistine, Sir Lucius O'Trigger'.
Thomas Carlyle often wrote ofgigs and "gigmanity" as a sign of classist materialism; Arnold recognized Carlyle's use of the term as being synonymous with philistine. Carlyle used "philistine" to describeWilliam Taylor in 1831. He also used it inSartor Resartus (1833–34) and inThe Life of John Sterling (1851), remembering conversations where "Philistines would enter, what we call bores, dullards, Children of Darkness".[9]
The composerRobert Schumann (1810-1856) createdDavidsbündler, a fictional society whose purpose is to fight the philistines. This fight appears in some of his musical pieces, such asDavidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, and the concluding part of hisCarnaval, op. 9, which is titled "Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins".
InThe Sickness Unto Death (1849), the philosopherSøren Kierkegaard criticises the spiritlessness of the philistine-bourgeois mentality of triviality and the self-deception of despair.[10]
The philosopherFriedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) identified the philistine as a person who, for a lack of true cultural unity, can only define style in the negative and through cultural conformity. The essay "David Strauss: the Confessor and the Writer" inUntimely Meditations is an extended critique of nineteenth-century German Philistinism.
A full-grown person whose interests are of amaterial and commonplace nature, and whose mentality is formed of the stock ideas andconventional ideals of his or hergroup and time. I have said "full-grown" person because the child or the adolescent who may look like a small philistine is only a small parrot mimicking the ways of confirmed vulgarians, and it is easier to be a parrot than to be a white heron. "Vulgarian" is more or less synonymous with "philistine": the stress in a vulgarian is not so much on the conventionalism of a philistine, as on the vulgarity of some of his conventional notions. I may also use the terms "genteel" and "bourgeois". Genteel implies the lace-curtain refined vulgarity, which is worse than simple coarseness. To burp in company may be rude, but to say "excuse me" after a burp is genteel, and thus worse than vulgar. The term bourgeois I use followingFlaubert, notMarx. Bourgeois, in Flaubert's sense, is a state of mind, not a state of pocket. A bourgeois is a smug philistine, a dignified vulgarian . . . generally speaking, philistinism presupposes a certain advanced state of civilization, where, throughout the ages, certaintraditions have accumulated in a heap and have started to stink.[11]
In Jena, vor dem Lobedaer Thore, befindet sich ein Gasthof, genannt zum gelben Engel. Hier gab es im L.1693. Händel, und ein Student wurde in denselben so geschlagen, daß er todt auf dem Plaze blieb. Den Sonntag darauf, predigte der Superintendent Götz heftig gegen diese That, und sagte: Es sey bei diesem Mordhandel hergegangen, wie dort stehe geschrieben: Philister über dir, Simson! Was geschieht? Kaum wurde es Abend, als es auf allen Gassen ertönte: Philister-über dir, Simson! Von dieser Stunde an, hießen die Jenaischen Bürger, Philister. Die Studenten brachten diese Benennung mit auf andere Akademien und endlich kam sie so ziemlich, in's ganze bürgerli che Leben. Die nicht Studenten waren, sollten Philister seyn. Das amusrte. In Jena, war damals das Balgen an der Tagesordnung.
