Giving life, spirit, or energy to something; serving as a driving force or motivation.
Present participle of animate, formed by adding -ing (Old English -ung, suffix forming gerunds and present participles). Can function as an adjective, verb form, or gerund noun.
The word 'animating principle' appears throughout the history of Western thought—philosophers asked what 'animating principle' gave form to matter, from Aristotle's theories to Descartes's thinking about consciousness, showing how this word captures our deepest questions about what makes things alive.
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