immaterialism

[ im-uh-teer-ee-uh-liz-uhm ]

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.

immaterialism

/ 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

Derived Forms

• ˌimmaˈterialist, noun

Other Words From

• imma·teri·al·ist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of immaterialism¹

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

Though the theology of Joseph Smith insists that immaterialism is an absurdity, yet it permits no overlapping of the earthly and the spiritual.

From Project Gutenberg

Soul, says Hegel, is not a separate and additional something over and above the rest of nature: it is rather nature's “'universal immaterialism, and simple ideal life77.”

From Project Gutenberg

Here we come upon the issue between materialism and immaterialism.

From Project Gutenberg

At what age of the Christian Church this heresy of immaterialism or masked atheism, crept in, I do not exactly know.

From Project Gutenberg