anti-naturalism
|an-ti-nat-u-ral-ism|
/ˌæn.tiˌnætʃəˈrælɪzəm/
against naturalism
Etymology
'anti-naturalism' originates from the combination of the prefix 'anti-' and the noun 'naturalism'. The prefix 'anti-' comes from Greek 'anti' meaning 'against', while 'naturalism' is formed from 'natural' (from Latin 'natura' meaning 'birth, nature') plus the suffix '-ism' (from Greek '-ismos'/Latin '-ismus' indicating a system or doctrine).
'anti-naturalism' arose in English by joining 'anti-' + 'naturalism'. 'Natural' entered English via Latin and Old/French forms (Latin 'natura' → Old French/Medieval English 'natural'), and '-ism' was added to create 'naturalism'; the compound 'anti-naturalism' appears in philosophical writing mainly from the late 19th to 20th century onward to denote opposition to naturalism.
Initially the parts meant 'against' ('anti-') and 'a doctrine about nature' ('naturalism'); over time the compound came to denote a specific philosophical stance opposing naturalistic explanations in areas like ethics, mind, or metaphysics.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
a philosophical position opposing naturalism; the view that not all phenomena, properties, or facts can be explained solely by natural causes or naturalistic methods, and that non-natural properties or irreducible facts may exist.
Anti-naturalism holds that some moral truths cannot be reduced to natural facts.
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Noun 2
a general attitude or stance of resistance to naturalistic explanations in a given domain (e.g., ethics, mind, or metaphysics).
In debates about consciousness, anti-naturalism often emphasizes irreducible subjective experience.
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Last updated: 2025/11/08 14:56