If you describe a view or explanation of something as mechanistic, you are criticizing it because it describes a natural or social process as if it were a machine.
[disapproval]
...a mechanistic view of things that ignores the emotional realities in people'slives.
Most of my colleagues in biology are still very mechanistic in their thinking.
mechanistic in British English
(ˌmɛkəˈnɪstɪk)
adjective
1. philosophy
of or relating to the theory of mechanism
2. mathematics
of or relating to mechanics
Derived forms
mechanistically (ˌmechaˈnistically)
adverb
mechanistic in American English
(ˌmɛkəˈnɪstɪk)
adjective
1.
of or in accordance with the theory of mechanism
2.
of mechanics or mechanical concepts
Derived forms
mechanistically (ˌmechaˈnistically)
adverb
Examples of 'mechanistic' in a sentence
mechanistic
The first science had resigned human beings to acting as objective observers of a mechanistic and meaningless universe.
Zindell, David THE BROKEN GOD
Either way, this relied on a mechanistic view of the mind in which memories were physically stored as traces.