Filister (även kallat Philistines på engelska), är ett skällsord som används inom den filosofiska och estetiska världen för att beskriva en karaktärstyp som är antiintellektuell, underskattar och föraktar konst, skönhet, och spiritualitet. De är självbelåtna i sin trångsynthet, har en tveksam moral, och en materialistisk livssyn och smak som indikerar en bristande och likgiltig inställning till kulturella och estetiska värden.
Ordet är rätt så ålderdomligt och verkar inte användas speciellt ofta i Sverige åtminstone, men liknande synonymer som "kälkborgare" och "bracka" är ändå relativt vanliga.
Poeten och kulturkritikern Matthew Arnold skrev detta om filister i sin bok Culture and anarchy (1869):
Citat:
"Now, the use of culture is that it helps us, by means of its spiritual standard of perfection, to regard wealth as but machinery, and not only to say as a matter of words that we regard wealth as but machinery, but really to perceive and feel that it is so. If it were not for this purging effect wrought upon our minds by culture, the whole world, the future, as well as the present, would inevitably belong to the Philistines. The people who believe most that our greatness and welfare are proved by our being very rich, and who most give their lives and thoughts to becoming rich, are just the people whom we call the Philistines. Culture say: “Consider these people, then, their way of life, their habits, their manners, the very tones of their voices; look at them attentively; observe the literature they read, the things which give them pleasure, the words which come forth out of their mouths, the thoughts which make the furniture of their minds; would any amount of wealth be worth having with the condition that one was to become just like these people by having it?”
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