Found 2 items, similar to Naturalism.
English → English (WordNet) Definition: naturalism naturalism n 1: (philosophy) the doctrine that the world can be understood in scientific terms without recourse to spiritual or supernatural explanations 2: an artistic movement in 19th century France; artists and writers strove for detailed realistic and factual description [syn: realism]
English → English (gcide) Definition: Naturalism Naturalism \Nat"u*ral*ism\, n. [Cf. F. naturalisme.] 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.]