User:Dematt/History of Vitalism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vitalism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is
- 1 : a doctrine that the functions of a living organism are due to a vital principle distinct from physicochemical forces
- 2 : a doctrine that the processes of life are not explicable by the laws of physics and chemistry alone and that life is in some part self-determining
Where vitalism explictly invokes a vital principle, that element is often referred to as the "vital spark", "energy" or "élan vital", which some equate with the "soul".
Vitalism has a long history in medical philosophies: most traditional healing practices posited that disease was the result of some imbalance in the vital energies which distinguish living from non-living matter. In the Western tradition, these vital forces were identified as the humours; eastern traditions posited similar forces such as qi, prana, etc. More recently, vitalistic thinking has been identified in the naive biological notions of children [1].