naturalism
NounWordNet 3.0
Noun (2)
- (philosophy) the doctrine that the world can be understood in scientific terms without recourse to spiritual or supernatural explanations
- an artistic movement in 19th century France; artists and writers strove for detailed realistic and factual descriptionSynonyms: realism
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)
1.A state of nature; conformity to nature. [1913 Webster]
2.(Metaph.) The doctrine of those who deny a supernatural agency in the miracles and revelations recorded in the Bible, and in spiritual influences; also, any system of philosophy which refers the phenomena of nature to a blind force or forces acting necessarily or according to fixed laws, excluding origination or direction by one intelligent will. [1913 Webster]
3.The theory that art or literature should conform to nature; realism; also, the quality, rendering, or expression of art or literature executed according to this theory. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
4.Specifically: The principles and characteristics professed or represented by a 19th-century school of realistic writers, notably by Zola and Maupassant, who aimed to give a literal transcription of reality, and laid special stress on the analytic study of character, and on the scientific and experimental nature of their observation of life. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]