Artificialism

Artificialism is a term coined by Jean Piaget that refers to the religiously-oriented perspective that all things were created by an intelligent entity that has complete control over their qualities, movements, and behaviors. Piaget contrasted this artificialistic perspective to animism, a view that embraces a greater self-determinism. Piaget's examination of these points of view were part of his description of the preoperational stage in children's development. He proposed that small children are actually capable of points of view such as artificialism and animism.