ACOSMISM. This term was coined by Fichte and Hegel on the model of the term atheism. According to the ordinary view, reality consists of God and a world (cosmos) of finite objects usually conceived as having been created by Him and made to conform to certain laws. Now atheism is the theory which denies the existence of God, and so identifies reality with a godless world of objects and events which exist of themselves and have an inherent order of their own. Acosmism is the contrary view that denies the independent reality of a world of finite objects and events, and regards God as the sole ultimate reality. In accordance with the common practice of denouncing anybody as an atheist whose conception of God was different from theirs, Spinoza was generally described as an atheist by his contemporaries and others. Hegel protested against the injustice of this. Spinoza, he said, was so far from denying the existence of God that he acknow ledged no other ultimate reality—so far from being an atheist he was an acosmist. Fichte similarly applied the term to himself in reply to similar accusations. The term acosmism has since been applied also to philosophies like those of the Vedanta, of Buddhism, and of Schopenhauer. Apart from its polemical uses the term acosmism, with its suggestion of an illusory world, is not a happy equivalent of the term pantheism. Strictly speaking, a pantheism like that of Spinoza no more denies the reality of the world than it denies the reality of God. It simply identifies the universe with God, and for that very reason regards the universe all the more as a world of order, a real cosmos. More over, there is an important sense in which pantheism is essentially cosmic, namely, in the sense that it regards man from the stand point of the universe, instead of regarding the universe from the point of view of man (see ANTHROPOCENTRIC PHILOSOPHY). "Acosmism" is therefore not only an inadequate, but also a mis leading description of pantheism.