automatism

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He points out that Matter, although to a degree the tool of Spirit, is nevertheless the enemy who threatens us with a lapse into mere automatism which is only the parody of true life.

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun The state or quality of being automatic.
  2. noun Automatic mechanical action.
  3. noun Philosophy The theory that the body is a machine whose functions are accompanied but not controlled by consciousness.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • The whole fatality of automatism is in the deed, which has been carried through without the man suspecting or being conscious of it; his physical machine has been the blind instrument of the force of evil he has himself slowly accumulated throughout the ages. —  Reincarnation A Study in Human Evolution
  • Deep in the lower body the great sympathetic center, the hypogastric plexus has been acting all the time in a kind of dream-automatism, balanced by its corresponding voluntary center, the sacral ganglion. —  Fantasia of the Unconscious
  • It means the fall into automatism, mechanism, and nullity We know that life issues spontaneously at the great nodes of the psyche, the great nerve-centers. —  Fantasia of the Unconscious
  • The great organs, being obstructed in their spontaneous-automatism, at last with violence arouse the active conscious-centers. —  Fantasia of the Unconscious
  • The horse is presented as an object of terror, which means that to the man's automatic dream-soul, which loves automatism, the great sensual male activity is the greatest menace. —  Fantasia of the Unconscious
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Latin automaton, automaton; see automaton.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from automaton + -ism. Cf. Greek αν)τοματισμός, that which happens of itself, a chance.
 

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/ɔˈtɑmətɪzm/
by American Heritage

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