Consequences of bourgeois revolutions and rapid development of public life in the majority of the European countries at a turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in many respects changed views of many concepts existing then in art, philosophy and social science. It led to emergence of a current of the realism which was brightly reflected in works by writers, painters, playwrights.
The naturalism as the term was included into the use in the second half of the nineteenth century. It is formed from the French word naturalisme which, in turn, came from the Latin naturalis meaning "natural" or "natural". Naturalism it is accepted to call a current or the concept in scientific or creative activity, any of areas. So, today allocate courses of naturalism in literature, painting, theater and also in philosophy and sociology. In philosophy the naturalistic direction is characterized by existence of the central concept according to which search of the reasons of the phenomena, the explanation of any processes and laws (both material, and non-material world) is conducted only with a position of existence of the nature as the universal essence causing everything. In particular, all social phenomena and aspects of human life are explained by influence of "the natural principle" (for example, instincts). Now in philosophy allocate the directions ontologic (questions of basic existence of objects or the phenomena), epistemological (questions of the belief coming from knowledge), semantic (the nature of meanings) and methodological (receptions, methods, ways of obtaining philosophical knowledge) naturalism.
The naturalism in sociology has in many respects something in common with the respective philosophical current. In a general sense the sociological naturalism orders the dominating influence on social processes to natural aspect. The classical form of this current - reductionism, explains all social phenomena with influence of biological or physiological factors. However, the alternative direction based on Emil Durkheim's works introduces a concept of the social nature in science, without reducing everything to simple physiology. The naturalism in art, mainly in literature, painting and scenic creativity, was especially strongly shown at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth of centuries. As much as possible exact, impartial, realistic and even photographic display of the existing reality was common feature of these currents. So, literary novels by realists of that time often caused shock in the aristocratic and intellectual environment as abounded with scenes of life of a marginal part of society, reproducing its manner and vocabulary of communication. Naturalistic painting and theater followed the same peasants and workers.