What does "exemptionalism" mean?

The belief that the relationship between humans and the natural environment is unimportant because humans are "exempt" from environmental forces and capable of adapting via cultural change.

Exemptionalism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
The belief that the relationship between humans and the natural environment is unimportant because humans are "exempt" from environmental forces and capable of adapting via cultural change. uncountable

Etymology

From exemptional + -ism.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.