anti-mechanist
|an-ti-mech-a-nist|
/ˌæn.tiˈmɛk.ə.nɪst/
against mechanism
Etymology
'anti-mechanist' combines the prefix 'anti-' from Greek, meaning 'against', with 'mechanist', derived from 'mechanism' + the agent suffix '-ist'.
'mechanist' comes from 'mechanism' (from Latin/Medieval Latin via French), itself from Greek 'mēkhanē' (μηχανή) meaning 'device' or 'contrivance'; the compound 'anti-mechanist' is a modern English formation using the productive prefix 'anti-'.
Initially, parts of the compound separately signified 'against' and 'one who supports/mechanizes' (or 'relating to mechanism'); over time the compound came to mean specifically 'one who opposes mechanistic explanations' or 'opposed to mechanism'.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
a person who opposes mechanism (the philosophical view that natural phenomena, including life and mind, are fully explainable by mechanical processes).
He described himself as an anti-mechanist, arguing that not all aspects of consciousness can be reduced to mechanical processes.
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Adjective 1
opposed to or critical of mechanism; rejecting mechanistic explanations or methods.
The philosopher took an anti-mechanist stance in his paper, favoring emergent and teleological accounts.
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Last updated: 2025/11/04 12:29