externalism

American  

[ik-stur-nl-iz-uhm] / ɪkˈstɜr nlˌɪz əm /

noun

1. attention to externals, especially excessive attention to externals, as in religion.

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externalism British  

/ ɪkˈstɜːnəˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. exaggerated emphasis on outward form, esp in religious worship

2. a philosophical doctrine holding that only objects that can be perceived by the senses are real; phenomenalism

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Other Word Forms

• externalist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of externalism

First recorded in 1855–60; external + -ism

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

externalism

The second reason may well be that there are different coping mechanisms among minorities that are more externalism than internalizing.

From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2013

The method of Christianity is alien to all externalism and machinery; it does not lend itself to those accommodations and compromises without which nothing can be done in politics.

From Outspoken Essays by William Ralph Inge

One was saved from the perils of a mere externalism, and was driven inward on the unseen realities which ceremonial may sometimes obscure.

From Fifteen Chapters of Autobiography by George William Erskine Russell

Hamsun's shrewdness had penetrated to the weakness of American civilization, its externalism, its materialism, its dryness and shallowness.

From Knut Hamsun by Hanna Astrup Larsen

He might have made their life a constant summer-time—that very life that had been by his own short-sighted externalism, confirmed into freezing, stormy, chilling winter.

From Tom Clark and His Wife Their Double Dreams, And the Curious Things that Befell Them Therein; Being the Rosicrucian's Story by Paschal Beverly Randolph