Mechanistic
adjective
Relating to a system or method explained by parts and their functions.
A mechanistic approach to solving the problem was proposed, involving detailed analysis of each component.
Often appears as...
- mechanistic approach
- mechanistic view
Usage tips
Academic
adjective
Relating to the theory that all natural phenomena, including life, can be explained by physical and chemical processes.
His explanation of the origin of the universe is completely mechanistic.
Often appears as...
- mechanistic explanation
- mechanistic theory
Usage tips
Technical
adjective
Not considering or allowing for change or development.
Her mechanistic view of history does not allow for unexpected events or the influence of individual personalities.
Often appears as...
- mechanistic view
- mechanistic perspective
Usage tips
Academic
adjective
Relating to a system or method explained by parts and their functions.
A mechanistic approach to solving the problem was proposed, involving detailed analysis of each component.
Often appears as...
- mechanistic approach
- mechanistic view
Usage tips
Academic
adjective
Relating to the theory that all natural phenomena, including life, can be explained by physical and chemical processes.
His explanation of the origin of the universe is completely mechanistic.
Often appears as...
- mechanistic explanation
- mechanistic theory
Usage tips
Technical
adjective
Not considering or allowing for change or development.
Her mechanistic view of history does not allow for unexpected events or the influence of individual personalities.
Often appears as...
- mechanistic view
- mechanistic perspective
Usage tips
Academic
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/2Parts and Functions
Focuses on a process in steps or stages explained by individual parts working together.
She used a mechanistic approach to dissect the frog step by step.
Pro Tip 2/2Systematic Analysis
In academic or professional contexts, implies a logical and thorough method.
The mechanistic study of the machine revealed how each gear contributed to its function.
Pro Tip 1/2Parts and Functions
Focuses on a process in steps or stages explained by individual parts working together.
She used a mechanistic approach to dissect the frog step by step.
Pro Tip 2/2Systematic Analysis
In academic or professional contexts, implies a logical and thorough method.
The mechanistic study of the machine revealed how each gear contributed to its function.
Pro Tip 1/2Parts and Functions
Focuses on a process in steps or stages explained by individual parts working together.
She used a mechanistic approach to dissect the frog step by step.
Pro Tip 2/2Systematic Analysis
In academic or professional contexts, implies a logical and thorough method.
The mechanistic study of the machine revealed how each gear contributed to its function.
Never forget "Mechanistic"
Humans forget easily. That's why you should download WordUp: Smart reminders, word games, AI practice, and much more!
Video examples
New ways to understand...
more mechanistic interactions with it within it and I've used the image of the government machinery earlier on we've heard the metaphors of war a great deal but in some of the speeches that we've heard from our leaders what we've also noticed is you know there's images of how they tell us you will not walk alone when you fall you will be helped you
Video examples
Perspective is...
they don't say is well the numbers all seem to add up but before I present this idea I'll go and share some really crazy people to see if they can come up with something better and say we artificially I think prioritize what I'd call mechanistic ideas over psychological ideas an example of a great psychological idea the single best
Video examples
Rory Sutherland:...
What they don't say is, "Well, the numbers all seem to add up, but before I present this idea, I'll show it to some really crazy people to see if they can come up with something better." And so we -- artificially, I think -- prioritize what I'd call mechanistic ideas over psychological ideas. An example of a great psychological
Video examples
Why do we sleep? PIPE...
also predispose individuals to mental health problems. And last year, we published a study which showed that a gene that's been linked to schizophrenia, when mutated, also smashes the sleep. So we have evidence of a genuine mechanistic overlap between these two important systems.
Video examples
The puzzle of motivation...
how we motivate people, how we apply our human resources-- it's built entirely around these extrinsic motivators, around carrots and sticks. That's actually fine for many kinds of 20th century tasks. But for 21st century tasks, that mechanistic, reward-and-punishment approach
Video examples
Rory Sutherland: Sweat...
lots of things haven't helped this -- business and government suffers from a kind of physics envy. It wants the world to be the kind of place where the input and the change are proportionate. It's a kind of mechanistic world that we'd all love to live in
Video examples
Technology that knows...
With some animals, it's really amazing, and we get to see into their internal experiences. We get this upfront look at the mechanistic interaction between how they respond to the world around them and the state of their biological systems.
Video examples
Beware, fellow...
the trickle-down policies that so dominate both political parties and embrace something I call middle-out economics. Middle-out economics rejects the neoclassical economic idea that economies are efficient, linear, mechanistic,
Video examples
Why the universe seems...
to try to get ourselves -- to get children into the way of thinking about it. I want to end by applying the idea of Middle World to our perceptions of each other. Most scientists today subscribe to a mechanistic view of the
Video examples
How to escape...
not because of it. It's like people are sailing into a headwind all the time. And the reason I think is that many of the current policies are based on mechanistic conceptions of education.
Video examples
New ways to understand...
more mechanistic interactions with it within it and I've used the image of the government machinery earlier on we've heard the metaphors of war a great deal but in some of the speeches that we've heard from our leaders what we've also noticed is you know there's images of how they tell us you will not walk alone when you fall you will be helped you
Video examples
Perspective is...
they don't say is well the numbers all seem to add up but before I present this idea I'll go and share some really crazy people to see if they can come up with something better and say we artificially I think prioritize what I'd call mechanistic ideas over psychological ideas an example of a great psychological idea the single best
Video examples
Rory Sutherland:...
What they don't say is, "Well, the numbers all seem to add up, but before I present this idea, I'll show it to some really crazy people to see if they can come up with something better." And so we -- artificially, I think -- prioritize what I'd call mechanistic ideas over psychological ideas. An example of a great psychological
Video examples
Why do we sleep? PIPE...
also predispose individuals to mental health problems. And last year, we published a study which showed that a gene that's been linked to schizophrenia, when mutated, also smashes the sleep. So we have evidence of a genuine mechanistic overlap between these two important systems.
Video examples
The puzzle of motivation...
how we motivate people, how we apply our human resources-- it's built entirely around these extrinsic motivators, around carrots and sticks. That's actually fine for many kinds of 20th century tasks. But for 21st century tasks, that mechanistic, reward-and-punishment approach
Video examples
Rory Sutherland: Sweat...
lots of things haven't helped this -- business and government suffers from a kind of physics envy. It wants the world to be the kind of place where the input and the change are proportionate. It's a kind of mechanistic world that we'd all love to live in
Video examples
Technology that knows...
With some animals, it's really amazing, and we get to see into their internal experiences. We get this upfront look at the mechanistic interaction between how they respond to the world around them and the state of their biological systems.
Video examples
Beware, fellow...
the trickle-down policies that so dominate both political parties and embrace something I call middle-out economics. Middle-out economics rejects the neoclassical economic idea that economies are efficient, linear, mechanistic,
Video examples
Why the universe seems...
to try to get ourselves -- to get children into the way of thinking about it. I want to end by applying the idea of Middle World to our perceptions of each other. Most scientists today subscribe to a mechanistic view of the
Video examples
How to escape...
not because of it. It's like people are sailing into a headwind all the time. And the reason I think is that many of the current policies are based on mechanistic conceptions of education.
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Mark Pagel
Scientist
Humans like to think of themselves as unusual. We've got big brains that make it possible for us to think, and we think that we have free will and that our behavior can't be described by some mechanistic set of theorems or ideas. But even in terms of much of our behavior, we really aren't very different from other animals.
Quote examples
Ellen Willis
American Writer
My education was dominated by modernist thinkers and artists who taught me that the supreme imperative was courage to face the awful truth, to scorn the soft-minded optimism of religious and secular romantics as well as the corrupt optimism of governments, advertisers, and mechanistic or manipulative revolutionaries.
Quote examples
William A. Dembski
American Philosopher
Give us detailed, testable, mechanistic accounts for the origin of life, the origin of the genetic code, the origin of ubiquitous bio macromolecules and assemblages like the ribosome, and the origin of molecular machines like the bacterial flagellum, and intelligent design will die a quick and painless death.
Quote examples
Jonathan Kozol
American Writer
I emphasize teachers because they are largely left out of the debate. None of the bombastic reports that come from Washington and think tanks telling us what needs to be 'fixed' - I hate such a mechanistic word, as if our schools were automobile engines - ever asks the opinions of teachers.
Quote examples
Nick Hanauer
American Businessman
Middle-out economics rejects the old misconception that an economy is a perfectly efficient, mechanistic system and embraces the much more accurate idea of an economy as a complex ecosystem made up of real people who are dependent on one another.
Quote examples
Michael Hirst
English Writer
My instinct is to absolutely recoil when talking about writing in a mechanistic way. Nothing could be dumber than writing a film or TV script based on prescriptions, on other peoples' ideas of what character should be.
Quote examples
Gero Miesenbock
Austrian Scientist
I don't know about you, but I find it exhilarating to see how vague psychological notions evaporate and give rise to a physical, mechanistic understanding of the mind, even if it's the mind of the fly.
Quote examples
Stanislav Grof
Czechoslovakian Psychologist
A radical inner transformation and rise to a new level of consciousness might be the only real hope we have in the current global crisis brought on by the dominance of the Western mechanistic paradigm.
Quote examples
Jennifer Doudna
American Scientist
As mechanistic biologists, we are hoping that by understanding how the virus works at the molecular level, we will be able to predict with more accuracy how it will evolve.
Quote examples
Kenneth L. Pike
American Sociologist
So I see that Christianity in believing in a Creator pulls together more facts, data, inner experience and ability than any mechanistic view could hold for me.
Quote examples
Mark Pagel
Scientist
Humans like to think of themselves as unusual. We've got big brains that make it possible for us to think, and we think that we have free will and that our behavior can't be described by some mechanistic set of theorems or ideas. But even in terms of much of our behavior, we really aren't very different from other animals.
Quote examples
Ellen Willis
American Writer
My education was dominated by modernist thinkers and artists who taught me that the supreme imperative was courage to face the awful truth, to scorn the soft-minded optimism of religious and secular romantics as well as the corrupt optimism of governments, advertisers, and mechanistic or manipulative revolutionaries.
Quote examples
William A. Dembski
American Philosopher
Give us detailed, testable, mechanistic accounts for the origin of life, the origin of the genetic code, the origin of ubiquitous bio macromolecules and assemblages like the ribosome, and the origin of molecular machines like the bacterial flagellum, and intelligent design will die a quick and painless death.
Quote examples
Jonathan Kozol
American Writer
I emphasize teachers because they are largely left out of the debate. None of the bombastic reports that come from Washington and think tanks telling us what needs to be 'fixed' - I hate such a mechanistic word, as if our schools were automobile engines - ever asks the opinions of teachers.
Quote examples
Nick Hanauer
American Businessman
Middle-out economics rejects the old misconception that an economy is a perfectly efficient, mechanistic system and embraces the much more accurate idea of an economy as a complex ecosystem made up of real people who are dependent on one another.
Quote examples
Michael Hirst
English Writer
My instinct is to absolutely recoil when talking about writing in a mechanistic way. Nothing could be dumber than writing a film or TV script based on prescriptions, on other peoples' ideas of what character should be.
Quote examples
Gero Miesenbock
Austrian Scientist
I don't know about you, but I find it exhilarating to see how vague psychological notions evaporate and give rise to a physical, mechanistic understanding of the mind, even if it's the mind of the fly.
Quote examples
Stanislav Grof
Czechoslovakian Psychologist
A radical inner transformation and rise to a new level of consciousness might be the only real hope we have in the current global crisis brought on by the dominance of the Western mechanistic paradigm.
Quote examples
Jennifer Doudna
American Scientist
As mechanistic biologists, we are hoping that by understanding how the virus works at the molecular level, we will be able to predict with more accuracy how it will evolve.
Quote examples
Kenneth L. Pike
American Sociologist
So I see that Christianity in believing in a Creator pulls together more facts, data, inner experience and ability than any mechanistic view could hold for me.
Example 1 of 10
WordUp Chrome Extension
As you browse the web instantly look up words you don’t know.
Get Chrome Extension