Hypertext Webster Gateway: "naturalism"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Naturalism \Nat"u*ral*ism\, n. [Cf. F. naturalisme.]
1. A state of nature; conformity to nature.
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.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Naturalism \Nat"u*ral*ism\, n.
1. 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.
2. Specif., 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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
naturalism
n 1: 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}]
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