possibilist

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a socialist who favors immediately achievable reforms rather than an all-or-nothing commitment to revolution

   The possibilist camp supported municipal reforms that could be won without waiting for a general revolution.

2. 2
   noun

   an advocate of possibilism in philosophy, especially the view that merely possible objects or worlds can have properties independently of what actually exists

   The possibilist treats possible worlds as more than descriptions of the one actual world.

Formed from possible + -ist, corresponding to French possibiliste. In late nineteenth-century French socialism, the name was applied to followers of Paul Brousse who pursued reforms achievable under existing conditions; philosophy later used the same formation for advocates of possibilism.

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