arbitrariness

plural arbitrarinesses · alternative arbitraryness

1. uncountableusuallyThe quality or state of being arbitrary; the extent to which something is arbitrary.

   1 more example

   Passion, providence, and imitation are conventionally the respective ruling forces of these three processes. Yet to take them at face value, as an innocent reading of the poem might advise, would be to betray Garcilaso’s own efforts, in this sonnet and elsewhere, to expose the arbitrariness of grandiose idealist concepts such as Platonic love and providential history.

   1998 spring, José María Rodríguez García, “Epos delendum est: The Subject of Carthage in Garcilaso’s ‘A Boscán desde “La Goleta”’”, in Hispanic Review, volume 66, number 2, Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 166

   Synonyms: arbitrarity