Anthropomorphism Essay

1095 Words3 Pages

The attribution of human forms, characteristics, emotions, intentions, motivations, thoughts, feelings, etc. to non-human objects, animals, forces of nature, animate and inanimate natural objects and phenomenon in order to explain and understand the behavior of those non-human agents of the world is called Anthropomorphism.
2. Discussion: Anthropomorphism is so widely described in various spheres of day to day life that it is easy to understand and exaggerate its potency, as Hume did by regarding it as world-wide. Hume was neither the first nor the alone who had overstated the strength of anthropomorphism; rather it has been historically discussed by various psychologists as something which is an instinctive psychological process of human …show more content…

Self-knowledge serves as a base for understanding the other, therefore, the prime agent to figure out the process of anthropomorphism is, according to Waytz and et al, the elicitation of agent knowledge itself. This is because humans have acquired the knowledge about their own self in the early stages of their development and it is so well discussed in detail that they are confident about it. They egocentrically, under the influence of self centred knowledge, always judge and reason the other lesser known agents and give them human characteristics according to their own beliefs and desires. So they generally anthropomorphize or use their own mental states and characteristics while reasoning about other non-human entities. However, children below the age of 4 years are unable to distinguish between self and the other, their internal self and the external world or the psychic world from the physical world. They always confuse the self with the other. As Piaget says: “at the starting point in the life of thought, we find a protoplasmic consciousness unable to make any distinction between the self and things” (235). While illustrating it with children it is seen that children consider their toys as like themselves and always feed and dress them in the similar way as …show more content…

Those who are lonely or lack social connections are more prone to make connections with their pets and other non-living things by giving them human characteristics. As Demetrious Loukatos

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