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Webster 1913 Edition


Panzoism

Pan-zo′ism

,
Noun.
[
Pan-
+ Gr.
ζῶ,ον
an animal.]
(Biol.)
A term used to denote all of the elements or factors which constitute vitality or vital energy.
H. Spencer.

Definition 2024


panzoism

panzoism

See also: pan-zoism

English

Alternative forms

Noun

panzoism (uncountable)

  1. (rare, archaic): Belief that the entire universe is a living thing, or is suffused with life.
    • 1875, James McCosh, Ideas in Nature Overlooked by Dr. Tyndall, p.37.
      He holds that there is a pangenesis or panzoism in all animated being. Now, what is this but the "life" of the old zoologists whom they so ridicule?
    • 1918, Edward Gleason Spaulding, The New Rationalism, p.34.
      But there [is] also panzoism, maintaining that the universe is a living being and has a soul, and anti-intellectualism, holding that genuine intellectual analysis is impossible, both because each thing is infinitely complex and because the removal of a part alters its causal context.
    • 2005, David Skrbina, Panpsychism In The West, p. 220.
      Why Carus did not use 'hylozoism' is not clear. Regardless, that term is now rarely used, as is also true of the variation panzoism.

Derived terms

See also