\Ag*nos"ti*cism\, n.
That doctrine which, professing ignorance, neither asserts
nor denies. Specifically: (Theol.) The doctrine that the
existence of a personal Deity, an unseen world, etc., can be
neither proved nor disproved, because of the necessary limits
of the human mind (as sometimes charged upon Hamilton and
Mansel), or because of the insufficiency of the evidence
furnished by physical and physical data, to warrant a
positive conclusion (as taught by the school of Herbert
Spencer); -- opposed alike dogmatic skepticism and to
dogmatic theism.