Abstract
EFFORTS in the past to account for the mysterious powers and properties of living beings have in the main consisted of bringing in some supra-sensible, immaterial, ultra-cognisable “principle” or “entity” as the causa causans. This has been known under different names as time went on, but they have all referred to the same thing-psyche, pneuma, the anima sensitiva of Van Helmont, the life principle of Stahl, the Bildungstrieb of Blumenbach, the vita propria of Bordeu, the vitalis agens of Barthez, the Lebenskraft of Reil, the entelechy of Driesch, the elan vital of Bergson, and the biotic energy of Moore. It is of the essence of vitalism to explain life in terms of the less known, to account for the properties of a living being by the indwelling activity of an entity, agent, or force which, by its very metaphysical nature, is inaccessible to human investigation.
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References
"System of Animate Nature" (Williams and Norgate, vol. 2, p. 160).
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HARRIS, F. Physiology and “Vital Force”. Nature 115, 608–610 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115608a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115608a0