psychism

English

Etymology

Compare French psychisme.

Noun

psychism (countable and uncountable, plural psychisms)

1. (philosophy) The old doctrine that there is a fluid (continuity) universally diffusing, and equally animating all living beings, the difference in their actions being due to the difference of the individual organizations.
   • 1858, William Fleming, The Vocabulary of Philosophy:

     PSYCHISM […] is the word to denote the doctrine that there is a fluid, diffused throughout all nature […]

Derived terms

• infrapsychism (rare)
• panpsychism

Related terms

• psychist

References

“psychism”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.