organicism

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or·gan·i·cism

(ôr-găn′ĭ-sĭz′əm)

1. The concept that society or the universe is analogous to a biological organism, as in development or organization.

2. The doctrine that the total organization of an organism, rather than the functioning of individual organs, is the principal or exclusive determinant of every life process.

3. The theory that all disease is associated with structural alterations of organs.

or·gan′i·cist n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

organicism

(ɔːˈɡænɪˌsɪzəm)

1. (Biology) the theory that the functioning of living organisms is determined by the working together of all organs as an integrated system

2. (Medicine) the theory that all symptoms are caused by organic disease

3. (Medicine) the theory that each organ of the body has its own peculiar constitution

orˈganicist n, adj

orˌganiˈcistic adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

or•gan•i•cism

(ɔrˈgæn əˌsɪz əm)

n.

1. Philos. the view that some systems resemble organisms in having parts that function in relation to the whole to which they belong. Cf. holism.

2. Pathol. the doctrine that all symptoms arise from organic disease.

3. a view of society as an autonomous entity analogous to and following the same developmental pattern as a biological organism.

[1850–55; organic + -ism]

or•gan`i•cis′mal, or•gan`i•cis′tic, adj.

or•gan′i•cist, n.

organicism

1. the theory that all symptoms are due to organic disease.
2. the theory that each of the organs of the body has its own special constitution. — organicist, n. — organicistic, adj.

See also: Philosophy

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Noun

organicism - theory that the total organization of an organism rather than the functioning of individual organs is the determinant of life processes

scientific theory - a theory that explains scientific observations; "scientific theories must be falsifiable"

holism, holistic theory - the theory that the parts of any whole cannot exist and cannot be understood except in their relation to the whole; "holism holds that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts"; "holistic theory has been applied to ecology and language and mental states"

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Architects are accustomed to identify organicism with anti-classical tendencies that emerged in the nineteenth century and flowered in the work of Wright and others in the twentieth.

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As Bullen analyzes it, The Stones of Venice employs Romantic premises about organicism and imagination to characterize the Renaissance and its art as repressive, lifeless, and unimaginative; Ruskin saw it, Bullen feels, as a sinister "impersonal natural force" that killed medieval vitality.

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In this volume we have gathered together and reordered individual items, proceeding from his preface through essays on such general principles as organicism, idea, coherence, and comprehensibility, to the core of his theory of musical form, finally culminating in the essay "The Constructive Function of Harmony".' The text is presented as faithfully as possible, with appropriate imitation of such features as marginalia, arrows, erasures and variations in handwriting size wherever the layout of the original page reflects thought processes.

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