What is the meaning of Naturalism?

Question

What is the meaning of Naturalism?

Answer 1

Creationists accuse scientists who accept evolution as being being Naturalists in the philosophical and religious sense.

nat·u·ral·ism [nach-er-uh-liz-uhm, nach-ruh-]

–noun

1.Literature.

a.a manner or technique of treating subject matter that presents, through volume of detail, a deterministic view of human life and actions.

b.a deterministic theory of writing in which it is held that a writer should adopt an objective view toward the material written about, be free of preconceived ideas as to form and content, and represent with clinical accuracy and frankness the details of life. Compare realism (def. 4b).

c.a representation of natural appearances or natural patterns of speech, manner, etc., in a work of fiction.

d.the depiction of the physical environment, esp. landscape or the rural environment.

2.(in a work of art) treatment of forms, colors, space, etc., as they appear or might appear in nature. Compare idealism (def. 4), realism (def. 3a).

3.action arising from or based on natural instincts and desires alone.

4.Philosophy.

a.the view of the world that takes account only of natural elements and forces, excluding the supernatural or spiritual.

b.the belief that all phenomena are covered by laws of science and that all teleological explanations are therefore without value.

5.Theology.

a.the doctrine that all religious truth is derived from a study of natural processes and not from revelation.

b.the doctrine that natural religion is sufficient for salvation.

6.adherence or attachment to what is natural.

Answer 2

I thought it was just another word nudists use around those who don't know they run around in the bare butt buff.  

Answer 3

Factual or realistic representation, especially:

The practice of describing precisely the actual circumstances of human life in literature.

The practice of reproducing subjects as precisely as possible in the visual arts.

A movement or school advocating such precise representation.

The principles and methods of such a movement or of its adherents.

Philosophy. The system of thought holding that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws.

Theology. The doctrine that all religious truths are derived from nature and natural causes and not from revelation.

Conduct or thought prompted by natural desires or instincts.

American Theater Guide: Naturalism

Naturalism A theatrical style sometimes called “realism,” it began as a rebellion against the romantic artificialities of much 19th‐century theatre. Initially such early exponents as Emile Zola conceived it as simply offering an unadulterated “slice of life” with all theatrical glossing over of hard facts removed and with only limited concern, if any, about the necessity of presenting such views in “well‐made” plays. However, it soon came to be perceived, at least popularly, as unswerving portrayals of the seamiest side of existence. Gorky's The Lower Depths is often cited as the classic example. Those who separate realism from naturalism often suggest that the former is more selective and therefore has to be more carefully contrived, and they offer the best plays of Ibsen as instances. Naturalism is often seen as a heightened form of realism with all five senses involved.

Literary Dictionary: naturalism

naturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories, and plays, usually involving a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France by Jules and Edmond Goncourt with their novel Germinie Lacerteux (1865), but it came to be led by Émile Zola, who claimed a ‘scientific’ status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjected to hunger, sexual obsession, and hereditary defects in Thérèse Raquin (1867), Germinal (1885), and many other novels. Naturalist fiction aspired to a sociological objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society—railways in Zola's La Bête humaine (1890), the department store in his Au Bonheur des dames (1883)—while enlivening this with a new sexual sensationalism.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: naturalism

Literature

Aesthetic movement of the late 19th to early 20th century. The movement was inspired by the principles and methods of natural science, especially Darwinism, which were adapted to literature and art. In literature, naturalism extended the tradition of realism, aiming at an even more faithful, pseudoscientific representation of reality, presented without moral judgment. Characters in naturalistic literature typically illustrate the deterministic role of heredity and environment on human life. The movement originated in France, where its leading exponent was Émile Zola. In America it is associated with the work of writers such as Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser. Visual artists associated with naturalism chose themes from life, capturing subjects unposed and not idealized, thus giving their works an unstudied air.

Architecture and Landscaping: Naturalism

Art in which the artist represents objects as they are, rather than in a stylized manner.

French Literature Companion: Naturalism

Naturalism has traditionally been considered a crude and exaggerated successor to Realism, nourished by the pseudo-scientific theories of its chief exponent, Zola. Amongst the major writers usually associated with the movement along with Zola—Alphonse Daudet, Huysmans, the Goncourt brothers, Maupassant, and lesser figures such as Alexis, Paul Bonnetain, Céard, Descaves, Louis Desprez, Hennique, and Gabriel Thyébaut—there was little agreement, interest, or consistency in theoretical matters.

Philosophy Dictionary: naturalism

Most generally, a sympathy with the view that ultimately nothing resists explanation by the methods characteristic of the natural sciences. A naturalist will be opposed, for example, to mind-body dualism, since it leaves the mental side of things outside the explanatory grasp of biology or physics; opposed to acceptance of numbers or concepts as real but non-physical denizens of the world; and opposed to accepting real moral duties and rights as absolute and self-standing facets of the natural order. The central problem for naturalism is to define what counts as a satisfactory accommodation between the preferred sciences and the elements that on the face of it have no place in them.

Sports Science and Medicine: naturalism

In sociology, a theoretical stance which adopts the naruralistic approach.

US History Encyclopedia: Naturalism

Naturalism, a literary mode developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, characterizedby detailed description, scientific and sociological themes, an objective, documentary quality, and a deterministic philosophy. The term "naturalism" is especially, but not exclusively, applied to novels. French writers such as the Goncourt brothers and Émile Zola pioneered naturalism in the late 1860s and 1870s. In the following three decades, naturalism appeared in Germany (the plays of Gerhart Hauptmann) and England (the novels of George Gissing and Arnold Bennett).

Columbia Encyclopedia: naturalism

naturalism, in literature, an approach that proceeds from an analysis of reality in terms of natural forces, e.g., heredity, environment, physical drives. The chief literary theorist on naturalism was Émile Zola, who said in his essay Le Roman expérimental (1880) that the novelist should be like the scientist, examining dispassionately various phenomena in life and drawing indisputable conclusions.

Fine Arts Dictionary: naturalism

In the visual arts, an attempt to depict the natural world as accurately and objectively as possible.

Naturalism may refer to:

Naturalism (philosophy), any of several philosophical stances wherein all phenomena or hypotheses commonly labeled as supernatural, are either false or not inherently different from natural phenomena or hypotheses

Methodological naturalism is the methodological assumption that observable events in nature are explained only by natural causes without assuming the existence or non-existence of the supernatural,

Metaphysical naturalism, a view whereby the world is amenable to a unified study that includes the natural sciences and in this sense the world is a unity.

Ethical naturalism, the theory that ethical terms can be defined in non-ethical terms

Humanistic naturalism, an outlook that places the emphasis upon a naturalism based upon scientific reasoning

Natural history, a broad area of the natural sciences concerned with living things

Sociological naturalism, the view that the natural world and the social world are roughly identical and governed by similar principles

Naturalism (art), an artistic style

Naturalism (literature), a literary, cinematic, or theatrical style

Naturalistic observation, an empirical method of study by which the researcher introduces no outside stimulus, instead witnessing behavior as it naturally occurs in the environment

Naturalism should not be confused with naturism, which is related to nudism