naturalism

The definition of naturalism is a view, particularly a philosophical and artistic one, that bases everything on what can be seen, what is viewed as natural and what is viewed as Earthly.

(noun)

An example of naturalism is an atheistic viewpoint.

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See naturalism in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

  1. action or thought based on natural desires or instincts
  2. Literature, Art, etc.
    1. faithful adherence to nature; realism; specif., the principles and methods of a group of 19th-cent. writers, including Émile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, and Guy de Maupassant, who believed that the writer or artist should apply scientific objectivity and precision in observing and depicting life, without idealizing, imposing value judgments, or avoiding what may be regarded as sordid or repulsive
    2. the quality resulting from the use of such realism
  3. Ethics the theory that distinctions between good and bad can be reduced to nonnormative or factual terms and statements, according to psychology, biology, etc.
  4. Philos. the belief that the natural world, as explained by scientific laws, is all that exists and that there is no supernatural or spiritual creation, control, or significance
  5. Theol. the doctrine that religion does not depend on supernatural experience, divine revelation, etc., and that all religious truth may be derived from the natural world

See naturalism in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun
  1. Factual or realistic representation, especially:
    a. The practice of describing precisely the actual circumstances of human life in literature.
    b. The practice of reproducing subjects as precisely as possible in the visual arts.
  2. a. A movement or school advocating such precise representation.
    b. The principles and methods of such a movement or of its adherents.
  3. Philosophy The system of thought holding that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws.
  4. Theology The doctrine that all religious truths are derived from nature and natural causes and not from revelation.
  5. Conduct or thought prompted by natural desires or instincts.

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