\Nat"u*ral*ism\, n. [Cf. F. naturalisme.]
1. A state of nature; conformity to nature.
2. (Metaph.) The doctrine of those who deny a supernatural
   agency in the miracles and revelations recorded in the
   Bible, and in spiritual influences; also, any system of
   philosophy which refers the phenomena of nature to a blind
   force or forces acting necessarily or according to fixed
   laws, excluding origination or direction by one
   intelligent will.

\Nat"u*ral*ism\, n.
1. The theory that art or literature should conform to
   nature; realism; also, the quality, rendering, or
   expression of art or literature executed according to this
   theory.
2. Specif., the principles and characteristics professed or
   represented by a 19th-century school of realistic writers,
   notably by Zola and Maupassant, who aimed to give a
   literal transcription of reality, and laid special stress
   on the analytic study of character, and on the scientific
   and experimental nature of their observation of life.