ANIMISM • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Animism

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noun

Animism n.

The doctrine, taught by Stahl, that the soul is the proper principle of life and development in the body.

The belief that inanimate objects and the phenomena of nature are endowed with personal life or a living soul; also, in an extended sense, the belief in the existence of soul or spirit apart from matter.

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Etymology of 'Animism'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Animism" Quotes from Famous Books

... the inanimate kingdom, as well as all animated beings, are endowed with reason, intelligence and volition, identical with that of man. This latter theory, which in many cases is equivalent to personification, though it may be, like animism, a feature of the philosophy of peoples of low culture, should not be confused with it. But it is difficult in practice to distinguish the two phases of thought and no clear account of animatism can yet be given, largely on the ground ...

— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 • Various

... and when I turned to ask my question as to origins, as every human being has asked himself in turn, I could express myself only in copybook terms. It is so with the primitive mind. It can only express itself in the terms of its greatest impressions, and it is in this way that primitive animism, sympathetic magic and other conceptions obtained from the results of anthropological research, are to be found in much the same degree wherever humanity is found in primitive conditions. As Mr. Hickson puts it so well: "Just as the ...

— Folklore as an Historical Science • George Laurence Gomme

... of religion that may be said to hold the field, because it is the view of the greatest of living anthropologists, is Dr. Tylor's theory of animism. The term animism is derived from the Latin anima, which—like the corresponding word spiritus, whence our "spirit"—signifies the breath, and hence the soul, which primitive folk tend to identify ...

— Anthropology • Robert Marett

Words linked to "Animism" : animist, philosophical system, school of thought, ism