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Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. [1] It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. [2] Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions, and natural forces, such as seasons and weather ...
This term also refers to a figure of speech in which an animal or inanimate object is ascribed human characteristics or is spoken of in anthropomorphic language. Quintilian writes of the power of this figure of speech to "bring down the gods from heaven, evoke the dead, and give voices to cities and states" ( Institutes of Oratory Book IX ...
When people feel sympathy for inanimate objects, they are anthropomorphizing, attributing human behaviors or feelings to animals or objects who cannot feel the same emotions as we do, Shepard said.
Animatism is a belief that inanimate, miraculous qualities exists in the natural world. It also talks about the belief that everything is infused with a life force giving each lifeless object personality or perception, but not a soul as in animism. It is a widespread belief among small-scale societies.
He argued that both humans and other animal species view inanimate objects as potentially alive as a means of being constantly on guard against potential threats. [32] His suggested explanation, however, did not deal with the question of why such a belief became central to the religion. [ 33 ]
According to Andrew Escobedo, "literary personification marshalls inanimate things, such as passions, abstract ideas, and rivers, and makes them perform actions in the landscape of the narrative." [28] He dates "the rise and fall of its [personification's] literary popularity" to "roughly, between the fifth and seventeenth centuries". [29]
Personification – a figure of speech that gives human characteristics to inanimate objects, or represents an absent person as being present. For example, "But if this invincible city should now give utterance to her voice, would she not speak as follows?" (Rhetorica ad Herennium) Petitio – in a letter, an announcement, demand, or request.
Being-in-itself refers to objects in the external world — a mode of existence that simply is. It is not conscious so it is neither active nor passive and harbors no potentiality for transcendence. This mode of being is relevant to inanimate objects, but not to humans, who Sartre says must always make a choice. [1]