An historical example of anthropomorphism or animism in science:
The loadstone is laid up in iron filings, not that iron is its food; as though loadstone were alive and needed feeding, as Cardan philosophizes;…
Whatever things, whether animals or plants, are endowed with life need some sort of nourishment, by which their strength not only persists but grows firmer and more vigorous. But iron is not, as it seemed to Cardan and to Alexander Aphrodiseus, attracted by the loadstone in order that it may feed on shreds of it, nor does the loadstone take up power from iron filings as if by a repast on victuals.
William Gilbert dismissing ideas of earlier 'philosophizers'
Gilbert, W. (1600/2016). On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet of the Earth. A new science, with many both arguments and experiment proofs. (V. Wilmont, Trans.). Read: 'Should we trust an experiment that suggests a stone can eat iron?'
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