animalist

Noun

animalist (plural animalists)

1. One who believes in the dominance of man's animal nature in behavior.
   • The animalist’s claim that all persons must be animals, if true, will have to be a posteriori truth.2002, Brian Garrett, Personal Identity and Self-Consciousness, Routledge, →ISBN, page 21
   • The hard question for the animalist is whether bodily continuity is necessary for the survival of the animal and, if so, what kind of bodily continuity.2011, Shaun Gallagher, The Oxford Handbook of the Self, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 145
2. A sensualist.
   • Whether spiritualist or animalist, Baudelaire's representations of sexuality establish contradictions and raise questions that both exemplify the author's dualistic thinking and reveal the unravelling of antithesis in his work.2015, Gretchen Schultz, Sapphic Fathers, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 34
3. A painter or sculptor whose primary subject is animals.
   • And in my opinion, the reason we have so few good animalists among modern artists is because the domestication of species and man's development have obscured their deeper visual significance for most of us.1927, Hamilton Easter Field, editor, The Arts, volume 11

   Synonyms:

   animalier

4. A writer of animal stories.
5. An animal liberationist.
6. (rare) One who believes that microorganisms cause disease.