| He was always criticized for his philistinism and his overweening self-confidence. |
| She was also accused of philistinism, particularly because of a remark she made at a private dinner party, disloyally leaked by a fellow guest. |
| But there is a kind of philistinism about regarding books as only having worth if they are old and valuable. |
| When cultural studies denigrates literature as elitist, this is hard to distinguish from a long national tradition of bourgeois philistinism. |
| Their libertarianism was more aesthetic than political, an assertion of personal autonomy against repressive philistinism. |
| The literary establishment's incoherent critique combines snobbish disdain for popular culture with an ahistorical philistinism. |
