Word.ws English Dictionary

anthropism

anthropism noun: the belief that human beings have a spiritual nature beyond the physical body characterized by in-dwelling Divinity.

Noun

anthropism (uncountable)

  1. The belief that human beings have a spiritual nature beyond the physical body characterized by in-dwelling Divinity.
    • Such a representation would present a real difficulty, if we were obliged to understand all this in its strict literal import, implying, as it would, very unworthy conceptions of God on the part of the writer. The difficulty vanishes, however, when it is perceived that this is only and instance of...1866, John Quarry, Genesis and Its Authorship: Two Disserations, page 108
    • I have seen the question asked "why should mind have a body?" the answer may well run "to mediate between it and other mind". It might be objected that such a view is undiluted 'anthropism.' To that we might reply, anthropism seems the present aim of the planet though presumably not its enduring...1979, John Carew Eccles, The Human Mystery: The GIFFORD Lectures., →ISBN, page 2
  2. The belief that human beings are fundamentally different from everything else in nature and that the world was made for them.
    • Such a representation would present a real difficulty, if we were obliged to understand all this in its strict literal import, implying, as it would, very unworthy conceptions of God on the part of the writer. The difficulty vanishes, however, when it is perceived that this is only and instance of...1866, John Quarry, Genesis and Its Authorship: Two Disserations, page 108
    • Philosophy is absolutely opposed to theology, anthropism to theism ; but this must not be taken to imply that theism is utterly false, or that anthropism is atheistic, for all that is meant is that the anthropistic outlook and point of departure has come into its own in modern philosophy.1919, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, The Spirit of Russia

Examples of anthropism in a sentence

  • The difficulty vanishes, however, when it is perceived that this is only and instance of a prevailing anthropism which characterises the whole narrative.1866, John Quarry, Genesis and Its Authorship: Two Disserations, page 108:
  • It might be objected that such a view is undiluted 'anthropism.' To that we might reply, anthropism seems the present aim of the planet though presumably not its enduring aim.1979, John Carew Eccles, The Human Mystery: The GIFFORD Lectures., →ISBN, page 2:
  • Homeric, and to an extent Hesiodic, myth amounts to "perfected anthropism," depicting the divine-made-human1992, David Kolb, New Perspectives on Hegel's Philosophy of Religion, →ISBN, page 67:
  • Actually we are guilty of anthropism, not anthropomorphism, a guilt shared with an increasing number of scientists, for the universe and our place in the universe are guilty of anthropism as well.2009, Benjamin Wiker, Jonathan Witt, A Meaningful World, →ISBN:

Origin of anthropism

From anthrop- + -ism.

Questions about anthropism

What does anthropism mean?
Anthropism means the belief that human beings have a spiritual nature beyond the physical body characterized by in-dwelling Divinity.
How do you use anthropism in a sentence?
The difficulty vanishes, however, when it is perceived that this is only and instance of a prevailing anthropism which characterises the whole narrative.
What part of speech is anthropism?
Anthropism is a noun.

Words near anthropism in the dictionary

  1. anthropics
  2. anthropisation
  3. anthropise
  4. anthropised
  5. anthropising
  6. anthropism
  7. anthropization
  8. anthropize
  9. anthropized
  10. anthropizes
  11. anthropizing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: anthropism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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