Which term describes the belief that nonliving things are alive?

Which term describes the belief that nonliving things are alive?

• A. Animism
• B. Anthropomorphism
• C. Realism
• D. Materialism

Answer: (A)

The belief that nonliving things are alive is animism. Animism treats objects, natural features, and phenomena as having living spirits, personalities, or agency—rocks with a soul, rivers with a life force, winds that can act or deliberate. This idea is central to how many traditional cultures understand the world, where everything in nature is seen as having life or intention. Anthropomorphism, by contrast, is about giving human traits or forms to nonhuman things, like saying a car “is tired” or a thunderstorm “looks angry.” It imitates human characteristics but doesn’t claim that the thing actually possesses life or a spirit. Realism focuses on how we perceive the world as it is, and materialism holds that everything is ultimately physical matter; neither asserts that inanimate things have life or souls.

The belief that nonliving things are alive is animism. Animism treats objects, natural features, and phenomena as having living spirits, personalities, or agency—rocks with a soul, rivers with a life force, winds that can act or deliberate. This idea is central to how many traditional cultures understand the world, where everything in nature is seen as having life or intention.

Anthropomorphism, by contrast, is about giving human traits or forms to nonhuman things, like saying a car “is tired” or a thunderstorm “looks angry.” It imitates human characteristics but doesn’t claim that the thing actually possesses life or a spirit. Realism focuses on how we perceive the world as it is, and materialism holds that everything is ultimately physical matter; neither asserts that inanimate things have life or souls.