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

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

Some of these are good enough, but they nearly all culminate in an ambitious externalism.

From A Breeze from the Woods, 2nd Ed. by Bartlett, William Chauncey

We are not dependent on forms as Israel was, but the spiritual religion of Christianity was only made possible by the externalism of the older system.

From Expositions of Holy Scripture by Maclaren, Alexander

He leaves them to our own thought, but they all point to the one great lesson that God needs not the service of externalism, but the preparation of the heart.

From Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 7 A Series of Pen and Pencil Sketches of the Lives of More Than 200 of the Most Prominent Personages in History by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis)

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 Randolph, Paschal Beverly