ironism

is the disposition of the liberal characterized by radical and continuing doubts about the vocabulary she currently uses because, through reading and such, she has encountered other vocabularies.

1. She has radical and continuing doubts about the final vocabulary she currently uses, because she has been impressed by other vocabularies, vocabularies taken as final by people or books she has encountered...2. She realizes that argument phrased in her present vocabulary can neither underwrite nor dissolve these doubts...3. Insofar as she philosophizes about her situation, she does not think that her vocabulary is closer to reality than others, that it is in touch with a power not herself.

is a way of living that loses all continuity, because the ironist's life is nothing but moods, a series of hypothetical and subjunctive moods.

As the ironist poetically composes himself and his environment with the greatest possible poetic license, as he lives in this totally hypothetical and subjunctive way, his life loses all continuity. He succumbs completely to mood. His life is nothing but moods.

ironism, n.All

ironism