Definition of "philistinism" [philistinism]

• A materialistic attitude accompanied by ignorance of artistic or cultural matters (noun)

Wiktionary.org : Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• "Stardust has been added to the protests by the intervention of Philip Pullman, the novelist and former schoolteacher, whose impassioned speech against the "philistinism" of the proposed closures has circulated widely on the net."
• "Although he professed an INTELLECTUAL appreciation for the ideals of the French REVOLUTION, he was shocked by DEMOCRACY in America and propounded a sophisticated snobbery in the guise of an attack on the "philistinism" of the English middle classes."
• "With great exasperation and often depression he expressed little hope that his country would ever emerge out of its "philistinism" and embrace "rational" ideas such as he propagated."