[f. ENCYCLOPÆDIA + -ISM.]
1. Encyclopædic learning; the possession of the whole range of knowledge.
1833. Carlyle, Diderot, Misc. V. 45. This exaggerated laudation of Encyclopedism.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (ed. 4), I. I. i. 6. Not that he [Gower] sets up for Encyclopædism; on the contrary, he laments … the scantiness of his knowledge.
2. The doctrines of the Encyclopædists (see ENCYCLOPÆDIST 1 b).
1835. Fraser’s Mag., XI. 102. A time of Tithe Controversy, Encyclopedism, Catholic Rent, Philanthropism, and the Revolution of Three Days!
1840. Mill, Diss. & Disc. (1859), II. 2, French philosophy, with us, is still synonymous with Encyclopedism.
