biologism
(baɪˈɒlədʒɪz(ə)m)
[f. biology + -ism.]
The interpretation of human life from a strictly biological point of view.
Motley's use of the word (= electro-biology 2) is Obs. rare.
| 1852 Motley Corr. 18 May (1889) I. 143 Whenever a charlatan can't find any to believe in his tricks of mesmerism or biologism, or whatever may be the latest neologism. 1924 Public Opinion 25 Jan. 81/3 When we try to force all the facts of human society into frameworks of zoology we are guilty of a biologism. 1926 J. A. Thomson Man in Light Evol. 32 A biologism is an attempt to ignore the uniqueness of man by forcing his activities in their entirety into the framework of mammalian physiology... It is a biologism to picture an average man as the slave of his hormones. 1967 Guardian 20 Oct. 6/3 Much of the biologism of this and other of his recent books is mere accretion concealing his own experiential progress. |
Hence bioloˈgistic a., of or relating to biologism.
| 1948 K. Davis Human Society (1959) xx. 556 So ingrained is the old biologistic approach to human fertility. 1959 New Scientist 17 Dec. 1266/1 A Neo-Freudian who has tried to correct Freud's biologistic approach to behaviour by stressing some of its cultural determinants. |