In philosophy, the view that all phenomena can be explained by mechanical principles or material interactions.
Descartes' mechanism regarded animals as complex machines.
There are attempts to explain life phenomena through mechanism.
生気論 (vitalism) is the opposing view that life involves a non-mechanical vital force, directly contrasting with 機械論.
Compound of 機械 (machine, mechanism) and 論 (theory, argument). Likely a Meiji-era calque from Western philosophical terminology.