naturalism

Etymology

It is formed from English natural + -ism,^[2][3][4][5] probably after Middle French and French naturalisme,^[2] which was used in the late 16th century of the mythological interpretation of the facts of nature, in philosophy from 1752, and in the visual arts from 1839.^[2] The Shorter Oxford sees the French model only in the philosophical sense.^[4] The OED compares the earlier naturalist.^[2] The adjective natural is from Old French naturel and directly from Latin nātūrālis (“by birth, according to nature”), from nātūra (“nature”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Action based on natural instincts, without spiritual guidance, or a morality or religion resting on human reason alone: before 1641, in R. Montagu's Acts and Monuments.^[2][6] Etymonline gives the 1630s,^[3] and Dictionary.com 1635–45.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word began in ethics and religion, for conduct or belief without spiritual guidance.^[2][4] In 1750, in Warburton's Julian, it entered philosophy for the belief that only natural laws and forces operate in the world;^[2][3] modern dictionaries narrow this to the claim that cause-and-effect laws explain all phenomena, or to the ethical thesis that moral properties reduce to natural ones.^[6][7] The critical sense, faithful adherence to nature or reality in art, came a century later, first of literature in 1845, in Poe,^[2] and of the visual arts in 1852, in A. Jameson's Legends of Madonna;^[2] Etymonline dates the tendency in art and literature to 1850.^[3] It then became the name of a movement, notably that of Zola and Flaubert in 19th-century France, with an emphasis on heredity and environment.^[7][6] M. Arnold's Essays in Criticism of 1865 shows a further use, attachment to what is natural with indifference to convention.^[2][4]

Timeline

• before 1641 – action based on natural instincts; a morality or religion without spiritual guidance.^[2][6]
• 1750 – in philosophy, the belief that only natural laws and forces operate.^[2][3]
• 1845 – in literature, close representation of nature or reality.^[2]
• 1852 – in the visual arts, the same.^[2]
• 1865 – adherence to what is natural; indifference to convention.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Close and factual representation of nature or real life in literature, the theatre, film or the visual arts.^[8][2][6]
2. A movement or school advocating such representation, especially that of 19th-century France, with its stress on heredity and environment.^[7][8][6]
3. (philosophy) The view that all phenomena can be explained by natural causes and laws, without supernatural or teleological explanation.^[8][6][7][2]
4. (theology) The doctrine that religious truth comes from nature and not from revelation.^[8][6][7]
5. (ethics) The thesis that moral properties reduce to natural ones, or that ethical judgments follow from non-ethical ones.^[7][6]
6. Conduct or thought prompted by natural desires and instincts alone.^[8][6][7]
7. Adherence to what is natural; indifference to convention.^[2][4][7]

Word family

• antinaturalism
• nonnaturalism

Related words

• naturalist
• natural
• nature

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt