Sentence:  This life, whose dreary superficiality is covered by the glitter of universal blague, like the stupid clowning of a harlequin by the spangles of a motley costume, induced in him a Frenchified—but most un-French—cosmopolitanism, in reality a mere barren <WSD>indifferentism</WSD> posing as intellectual superiority. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  ("more broadly") Relativism, agnosticism; apathy, indifference.