immaterialism

American  

[im-uh-teer-ee-uh-liz-uhm] / ˌɪm əˈtɪər i əˌlɪz əm /

noun

1. the doctrine that there is no material world, but that all things exist only in and for minds.

2. the doctrine that only immaterial substances or spiritual beings exist.

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immaterialism British  

/ ˌɪməˈtɪərɪəˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. the doctrine that the material world exists only in the mind

2. the doctrine that only immaterial substances or spiritual beings exist See also idealism

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Other Word Forms

• immaterialist noun

Etymology

Origin of immaterialism

1705–15; immaterial + -ism, modeled on materialism

Example Sentences

As George Berkeley, the 18th-century philosopher of immaterialism, might have asked: What are windows without window shoppers to see them?

From New York Times • Nov. 25, 2020

Spark hints at dark spiritual convulsions, a "new world which was arising out of the ashes of the old, avid for immaterialism."

From Time Magazine Archive

The true bibliophile is obsessed by a kind of dialectical immaterialism.

From Time Magazine Archive

The latter branch, indeed, affords such decided proofs of immaterialism, as to have led several able materialists to change their views.

From The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences by Hitchcock, Edward

For immaterialism 's a serious matter; So that even those whose faith is the most great In souls immortal, shun them tete-a-tete.

From Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron