Absolutism may refer to:

Government

Absolutism (European history) Absolutism or the Age of Absolutism () is a historiographical term used to describe a form of monarchical power that is unrestrained by all other institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites. The term 'absolutism' is typical ...

, period c. 1610 – c. 1789 in Europe **

Enlightened absolutism Enlightened absolutism, also called enlightened despotism, refers to the conduct and policies of European absolute monarchs during the 18th and early 19th centuries who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, espousing them to enhanc ...

, influenced by the Enlightenment (18th- and early 19th-century Europe) * Absolute monarchy, in which a monarch rules free of laws or legally organized opposition *

Autocracy Autocracy is a form of government in which absolute power is held by the head of state and Head of government, government, known as an autocrat. It includes some forms of monarchy and all forms of dictatorship, while it is contrasted with demo ...

, a political theory which argues that one person should hold all power **

Tsarist autocracy Tsarist autocracy (), also called Tsarism, was an autocracy, a form of absolute monarchy in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire. In it, the Tsar possessed in principle authority an ...

, is a form of autocracy (later absolute monarchy) specific to Russia

Philosophy

General philosophy

* Absolutism, the view that facts are absolute rather than merely relative (sometimes called "universality")

Ethics

Moral absolutism Moral absolutism is a metaethics, metaethical view that some or even all action (philosophy), actions are intrinsically right or wrong, regardless of context or consequence. Comparison with other ethical theories Moral absolutism is not the same ...

, the belief in absolute standards against which moral questions can be judged, regardless of context *

Graded absolutism Graded absolutism is a theory of moral absolutism (in Christian ethics) which resolves the objection to absolutism (i.e., in moral conflicts, we are obligated to opposites). Moral absolutism is the Ethics, ethical view that certain actions are a ...

, the view that a moral absolute, such as "Do not kill", can be greater or lesser than another moral absolute, such as "Do not lie"

Hegelian philosophy

Absolute (philosophy) In philosophy (often specifically metaphysics), the absolute, in most common usage, is a perfect, self-sustainability, self-sufficient reality that depends upon nothing external to itself. In theology, the term is also used to designate the supre ...

, the Hegelian concept of an objective and unconditioned reality, said to underlie perceived objects *

Absolute idealism Absolute idealism is chiefly associated with Friedrich Schelling and G. W. F. Hegel, both of whom were German idealist philosophers in the 19th century. The label has also been attached to others such as Josiah Royce, an American philosopher wh ...

, an ontologically monistic philosophy attributed to G. W. F. Hegel

Physics

* Absolute theory, in physics ** Absolute space, a theory that space exists absolutely; contrast with relationalism

Psychology

Splitting (psychology) Splitting, also called binary thinking, dichotomous thinking, black-and-white thinking, all-or-nothing thinking, or thinking in extremes, is the failure in a person's thinking to bring together the dichotomy of both perceived positive and negative ...

, also called black-and-white thinking or all-or-nothing thinking {{disambig