élan vital
Creative evolutionary impulse
Élan vital is a philosophical term coined by Henri Bergson for the vital impulse or life force that drives evolution and creative development in living things.
Unlike mechanical or purely material explanations of life, élan vital posits an inner creative energy pushing organisms toward greater complexity and novelty: Bergson's élan vital challenged Darwinian mechanism.
- existenceState of being real
- life forceAnimating vital energy
- organicismUnified living systems theory
- spiritSoul, mood, or liquor
- vitalityCapacity for spirited existence
animating spirit · inner fire · evolution · pneuma · breath of life · transcendence · imagination · prana · intuition · dynamism · creative impulse · divine spark · creativity · emergence · essence · growth · soul · will to live
élan vitalmechanism
Means by which something operates
reductionism · physicalism · materialism · determinism · clockwork universe
élan vitalentropy
Quantified chaos in systems
heat death · dissolution · degradation · dissipation · running down