naturalism

noun

• 1(in art and literature) a style and theory of representation based on the accurate depiction of detail: his attack on naturalism in TV drama

The name ‘Naturalism’ was given to a 19th-century artistic and literary movement, influenced by contemporary ideas of science and society, which rejected the idealization of experience and adopted an objective and often uncompromisingly realistic approach to art. Notable figures include the novelist Zola and the painter Courbet

• 2the philosophical belief that everything arises from natural properties and causes, and supernatural or spiritual explanations are excluded or discounted: this romanticized attitude to the world did conflict with his avowed naturalism

• 3(in moral philosophy) the theory that ethical statements can be derived from non-ethical ones.