An example of anthropomorphic language in historical science writing:
"Centripetal force is the force by which bodies are drawn from all sides, are impelled, or in any way tend, toward some point as to a centre.
One force of this kind is gravity, by which bodies tend towards the centre of the earth; another is magnetic force, by which iron seeks a lodestone; and yet another is that force, whatever it may be, by which the planets are continually drawn back from rectilinear motions and compelled to revolve in curved lines.
A stone in a sling endeavours to leave the hand that is whirling it, and by its endeavour it stretches the sling, doing so more strongly the more swiftly it revolves; and as soon as it is released, it flies away. The force opposed to that endeavour, that is, the force by which the sling continually draws the stone back toward the hand and keeps it in orbit, I call centripetal, since it is directed toward the hand as towards the centre of an orbit. And the same applies to all bodies that are made to move in orbits. They all endeavour to recede from the centres of their orbits, and unless some force opposed to that endeavor is present, restraining them and keeping them in orbits. They all endeavour to recede from the centres of their orbits, and unless some force opposed to their endeavour is present, restraining them and keeping them in orbits and hence called by me centripetal, they will go off in a straight line into the heavens and do so with uniform motion, provided than the resistance of the air were removed."
Isaac Newton (1999) Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (3rd edition, 1726): The authoritative translation (I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman), University of California Press
Newton's 'Principia' formalised the laws of motion and gravity which dominated physics for centuries. However in his definition of centripetal force (which had a wider meaning than in physics today where usage is restricted to bodies moving around a centre), Newton uses language that seems anthropomorphic. We might read 'endeavour' as 'tend', but 'seeking a lodestone seems more than a tendency'.
Read examples of anthropomorphism in science
