vitalism
Biology needs spirit
Vitalism is the belief that living organisms possess a vital force or principle distinct from physical and chemical processes—something beyond mere matter that animates life.
The doctrine was influential in biology and philosophy before modern biochemistry largely displaced it.
The term now often carries dismissive connotations, suggesting outdated or unscientific thinking: Her arguments veered into vitalism.
Animating vital energy
- teleologyStudy of purpose in nature
- animismSpirits inhabit all things
- soulInnermost animating essence
- spiritSoul, mood, or liquor
Henri Bergson · metaphysics · dualism · holism · organicism · purposiveness · immaterialism · Aristotle
Animating vital energy
Life arising from nonliving material
- alchemyMystical metal transformation
- phlogistonHypothetical fire essence
- humorsAccommodates someone's wishes
- aetherHypothetical light-wave medium
miasma · animal magnetism · mesmerism · life essence · Pasteur · Needham · protoplasm
Means by which something operates
- materialismPrioritizing goods over spirit
- reductionismExplaining wholes through parts
- physicalismAll is matter
- atomismDiscrete particles compose everything
determinism · empiricism · Darwinism · molecular biology · biochemistry
life force
Animating vital energy
Henri Bergson · spirit · metaphysics · dualism · holism · organicism · purposiveness · immaterialism · Aristotle · pneuma
life force
Animating vital energy
kundalini · bioenergy · vigor · dynamism · animation · spirit · élan
spontaneous generation
Life arising from nonliving material
- alchemyMystical metal transformation
- phlogistonHypothetical fire essence
- humorsAccommodates someone's wishes
aether · miasma · animal magnetism · mesmerism · life essence · Pasteur · Needham · protoplasm
mechanism
Means by which something operates
- materialismPrioritizing goods over spirit
- reductionismExplaining wholes through parts
- physicalismAll is matter
atomism · determinism · empiricism · Darwinism · molecular biology · biochemistry
vitalismmechanism
Means by which something operates
materialism · physicalism · reductionism · naturalism · atomism
vitalismbiochemistry
Science of living chemistry
molecular biology · biophysics · synthetic biology · abiogenesis · organicism
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