Vitalism

Vitalism posits that living organisms are distinct from non-living entities due to the presence of non-physical or non-chemical forces, properties, or powers. Historically, various vitalist theories were prevalent, but they are now classified as pseudoscientific concepts. When vitalism explicitly refers to a vital principle, this element is frequently termed the "vital spark," "energy," "élan vital" (a term introduced by Henri Bergson), "vital force," or "vis vitalis," sometimes equated with the soul. During the 18th and 19th centuries, vitalism was a subject of debate among biologists. Mechanists believed that the principles of physics would ultimately explain the distinction between life and non-life, while vitalists contended that life processes could not be reduced to mechanistic operations. Vitalist biologists, including Johannes Reinke, advanced testable hypotheses intended to demonstrate the limitations of mechanistic explanations; however, their experiments did not substantiate vitalism. Contemporary biologists consider vitalism, in this context, to have been disproven by empirical evidence, classifying it as either a superseded scientific theory or a pseudoscience since the mid-20th century.

Vitalism has a significant historical presence in medical philosophies, with numerous traditional healing practices attributing disease to an imbalance in vital forces.

History

Ancient Philosophies

The concept that physiological functions originate from a vitalistic principle inherent in all living beings can be traced back to ancient Egypt. Within Greek philosophy, the Milesian school offered naturalistic explanations derived from materialism and mechanism. Nevertheless, by the era of Lucretius, this perspective was augmented, for instance, by Epicurus's unpredictable clinamen. In Stoic physics, the pneuma adopted the function of logos. Galen posited that the lungs extract pneuma from the atmosphere, which is then circulated by the blood throughout the body.

Jainism

Vitalism constitutes a component of Jain philosophy. Umaswati's Tattvarthsutra asserts that the cosmos comprises six eternal substances: sentient beings or souls (jīva), non-sentient substance or matter (pudgala), the principle of motion (dharma), the principle of rest (adharma), space (ākāśa), and time (kāla). Pujyapada's Sarvārthasiddhi further categorizes Jiva based on the number of vitalities associated with the senses.

Medieval Period

During the medieval period in Europe, physics was influenced by the concept of pneuma, which contributed to the development of subsequent aether theories.

Early Modern Period

Notable vitalists included the English anatomist Francis Glisson (1597–1677) and the Italian physician Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694). Caspar Friedrich Wolff (1733–1794) is recognized as the progenitor of epigenesis in embryology, signifying the shift towards describing embryonic development through cellular proliferation rather than the manifestation of a preformed soul. Nevertheless, this level of empirical observation was not accompanied by a mechanistic philosophical framework. In his 1759 work, Theoria Generationis, Wolff attempted to elucidate the emergence of organisms through the operation of a vis essentialis, an organizing, formative force. Subsequently, Carl Reichenbach (1788–1869) formulated the theory of Odic force, conceptualized as a life-energy permeating living entities.

During the 17th century, modern scientific thought addressed Newton's concept of action at a distance and the mechanism of Cartesian dualism by proposing vitalist theories. These theories posited that while chemical transformations in non-living substances are reversible, "organic" matter undergoes permanent alteration through chemical processes, such as cooking.

As articulated by Charles Birch and John B. Cobb, "the claims of the vitalists came to the fore again" during the 18th century. This period saw the activity of "Georg Ernst Stahl's followers, alongside other figures like the brilliant physician Francis Xavier Bichat of the Hotel Dieu." However, "Bichat moved from the tendency typical of the French vitalistic tradition to progressively free himself from metaphysics in order to combine with hypotheses and theories which accorded to the scientific criteria of physics and chemistry." John Hunter acknowledged "a 'living principle' in addition to mechanics."

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach significantly contributed to the establishment of epigenesis in the life sciences in 1781 with his publication of Über den Bildungstrieb und das Zeugungsgeschäfte. Blumenbach dissected freshwater Hydra and demonstrated that the excised portions possessed regenerative capabilities. He postulated the existence of a "formative drive" (Bildungstrieb) in living matter. However, he noted that this nomenclature,

similar to appellations given to any other vital force, inherently provides no explanation: it functions solely to denote a distinct power resulting from the integration of mechanical principles with elements amenable to modification.

19th century

Jöns Jakob Berzelius, a prominent founder of modern chemistry in the early 19th century, posited the necessity of a regulative force within living matter for the maintenance of its functions. Berzelius asserted that compounds could be categorized based on their synthetic requirements: organic compounds necessitated biological organisms for their formation, whereas inorganic compounds did not. Proponents of vitalism predicted the impossibility of synthesizing organic substances from inorganic constituents; however, Friedrich Wöhler successfully synthesized urea from inorganic components in 1828. Nevertheless, historical records do not substantiate the widespread notion that Wöhler's synthesis of urea led to the immediate demise of vitalism. This narrative, termed the Wöhler Myth by historian Peter Ramberg, emerged from a popular 1931 history of chemistry that, "disregarding all claims of historical precision, portrayed Wöhler as a determined advocate who repeatedly endeavored to synthesize a natural product to disprove vitalism and dispel ignorance, until 'one afternoon the miracle occurred'".

Between 1833 and 1844, Johannes Peter Müller authored a seminal physiology textbook titled Handbuch der Physiologie, which subsequently served as the preeminent textbook in the discipline throughout much of the nineteenth century. The work evinced Müller's adherence to vitalist principles; he explored the distinctions between organic and inorganic matter before conducting chemical analyses of blood and lymph. He meticulously detailed the circulatory, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, endocrine, nervous, and sensory systems across diverse animal species, yet posited that the existence of a soul rendered each organism an indivisible entity. He asserted that the phenomena of light and sound waves indicated that living organisms harbored a unique life-energy, which could not be entirely explained by physical laws.

Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), following his renowned refutation of spontaneous generation, conducted multiple experiments that he believed substantiated vitalism. As Bechtel notes, Pasteur "integrated fermentation into a broader framework delineating specific reactions exclusive to living organisms, characterizing these as irreducibly vital phenomena." Contradicting the assertions of Berzelius, Liebig, Traube, and other researchers who attributed fermentation to intracellular chemical agents or catalysts, Pasteur ultimately concluded that fermentation constituted a "vital action."

20th century

Hans Driesch (1867–1941) interpreted his experimental findings as demonstrating that life operates independently of physicochemical laws. His primary contention was that if an embryo is dissected after its initial one or two divisions, each resulting fragment develops into a complete adult organism. Driesch's standing as an experimental biologist declined significantly due to his vitalistic theories, which have been widely regarded as pseudoscience by the scientific community since his era. Vitalism represents a superseded scientific hypothesis, and the term is occasionally employed as a derogatory label. Ernst Mayr (1904–2005) observed:

It would be ahistorical to deride vitalists. Upon reviewing the works of prominent vitalists such as Driesch, one is compelled to concur that numerous fundamental biological challenges cannot be adequately addressed by a Cartesian philosophy, which merely conceptualizes the organism as a machine... The logical foundation of the vitalists' critique was unassailable.

Vitalism has acquired such a disreputable status over the past five decades that no contemporary biologist would wish to be categorized as a vitalist. Nevertheless, vestiges of vitalist thought persist in the contributions of Alistair Hardy, Sewall Wright, and Charles Birch, who appear to endorse a nonmaterial principle within organisms.

Prominent vitalists also included Johannes Reinke and Oscar Hertwig. Reinke coined the term neovitalism to characterize his work, asserting that it would ultimately be substantiated through empirical experimentation and represented an advancement over existing vitalistic theories. Reinke's contributions subsequently influenced Carl Jung.

Early in his career, John Scott Haldane adopted an anti-mechanist perspective in biology and an idealist philosophical framework. Haldane regarded his research as substantiating his conviction that teleology constituted an indispensable concept within biology. His views gained widespread recognition with the publication of his inaugural book, Mechanism, life and personality, in 1913. While Haldane appropriated arguments from vitalists to counter mechanism, he did not identify as a vitalist himself. He categorically asserted the organism's fundamental role in biology, stating: "we perceive the organism as a self-regulating entity," and "every effort to analyze it into components that can be reduced to a mechanical explanation violates this central experience." Haldane's work significantly influenced organicism. He contended that a purely mechanist interpretation could not adequately account for the intrinsic characteristics of life. Haldane authored several books in which he endeavored to demonstrate the inadequacy of both vitalist and mechanist approaches to scientific inquiry. Haldane explained:

We must find a different theoretical basis of biology, based on the observation that all the phenomena concerned tend towards being so coordinated that they express what is normal for an adult organism.

By 1931, biologists had almost unanimously abandoned vitalism as an acknowledged theoretical framework.

Twenty-First Century

In 2007, American philosophy professor Leonard Lawlor contributed a chapter to the Columbia Companion to Twentieth-Century Philosophies, which elucidated the "neo-vitalism" framework within twentieth-century continental philosophy.

Furthermore, Benjamin Prinz and Henning Schmidgen have posited the existence of an undercurrent they term "vitalist Marxism" throughout twentieth-century continental philosophy. Drawing specifically from the work of Georges Canguilhem, they delineate an interpretation of Marxism wherein life is conceptualized not as a metaphysical substance but as a normative and self-organizing activity. Within this framework, Karl Marx's concept of life is re-evaluated beyond its role as the biological basis of labor power and is instead regarded as a wellspring of critique and resistance within capitalist modernity. This perspective also advocates an "organological" account of technology, conceptualizing tools and machinery as extensions or "organs" of living beings rather than as purely mechanical entities antithetical to life. Vitalist Marxism thereby establishes a nexus between historical materialism and contemporary ecological and political concerns centered on the defense and transformation of living conditions.

Vitalism received a significant challenge in 2010 when Craig Venter and his research team successfully synthesized a bacterial chromosome. This synthetic chromosome was subsequently introduced into bacterial host cells that had been genomically emptied. The recipient cells demonstrated the capacity for growth and replication, leading to the creation of Mycoplasma laboratorium.

Emergentism

In contemporary scientific and engineering discourse, emergent processes are frequently described as phenomena where a system's properties cannot be exhaustively characterized solely by the properties of its constituent parts. This limitation may arise either from an incomplete understanding of the constituent properties or from the critical role that interactions among individual constituents play in shaping the system's overall behavior.

The classification of emergence alongside traditional vitalist concepts remains a subject of semantic debate. As articulated by Emmeche et al. (1997):

On the one hand, many scientists and philosophers regard emergence as having only a pseudo-scientific status. On the other hand, new developments in physics, biology, psychology, and cross-disciplinary fields such as cognitive science, artificial life, and the study of non-linear dynamical systems have focused strongly on the high level 'collective behaviour' of complex systems, which is often said to be truly emergent, and the term is increasingly used to characterize such systems.

Mesmerism

During the eighteenth century, "animal magnetism," a concept central to the theories of Franz Mesmer (1734–1815), gained prominence as a vitalist theory. Nevertheless, employing the conventional English term animal magnetism as a direct translation of Mesmer's original magnétisme animal can be problematic for three distinct reasons:

• Mesmer deliberately selected his terminology to differentiate his specific interpretation of magnetic force from contemporary concepts such as mineral magnetism, cosmic magnetism, and planetary magnetism.
• Mesmer posited that this distinct force or power was exclusively present within the physiological systems of humans and animals.
• Mesmer specifically adopted the term "animal" due to its etymological origin (from the Latin animus, meaning "breath"), thereby designating his proposed force as an inherent characteristic of all animate beings possessing respiration, namely humans and animals.

The profound influence of Mesmer's concepts prompted King Louis XVI of France to establish two commissions tasked with investigating mesmerism. One commission was chaired by Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, while the other, led by Benjamin Franklin, included prominent figures such as Bailly and Lavoisier. These commissioners thoroughly examined Mesmeric theory and observed patients exhibiting fits and trances. During an experiment conducted in Franklin's garden, a patient was directed to five trees, one of which had purportedly been "mesmerized." The patient embraced each tree sequentially to absorb the "vital fluid" but collapsed upon reaching an un-mesmerized tree. Similarly, at Lavoisier's residence, a "sensitive" woman was presented with four ordinary cups of water; the fourth cup reportedly induced convulsions. However, she consumed the contents of a fifth cup, which had been "mesmerized," without adverse reaction, believing it to be plain water. The commissions ultimately concluded that "the fluid without imagination is powerless, whereas imagination without the fluid can produce the effects of the fluid."

Medical Philosophies

Vitalism possesses an extensive historical presence within medical philosophies, with numerous traditional healing practices asserting that illness arises from an imbalance in vital forces. A comparable concept in African traditions is the Yoruba notion of *ase*. Within the European medical tradition, originating with Hippocrates, these vital forces were linked to the four temperaments and humours. Various Asian traditions, conversely, postulated that disease stemmed from an imbalance or obstruction of *qi* or *prana*. Furthermore, in non-territorialized traditions, including religions and arts, vitalistic perspectives persist as philosophical stances or enduring principles.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) encompasses various energy therapies, which are frequently associated with vitalism. Notable examples include biofield therapies such as therapeutic touch, Reiki, external *qi*, chakra healing, and SHEN therapy. These therapeutic modalities involve a practitioner manipulating a patient's "subtle energy" field, which is theorized to exist independently of the electromagnetic energy generated by the heart and brain. Beverly Rubik characterizes the biofield as a "complex, dynamic, extremely weak EM field within and around the human body...."

Samuel Hahnemann, the originator of homeopathy, advocated for an immaterial, vitalistic understanding of disease, stating: "...they are solely spirit-like (dynamic) derangements of the spirit-like power (the vital principle) that animates the human body." This perspective, which defines disease as a dynamic disruption of an immaterial and dynamic vital force, is a core tenet taught in numerous homeopathic colleges and remains a foundational principle for many contemporary homeopathic practitioners.

Criticism

Vitalism has occasionally faced criticism for committing the fallacy of begging the question, specifically by merely assigning a name to an unexplained phenomenon. Molière famously satirized this logical error in Le Malade imaginaire, where a charlatan "explains" why opium induces sleep by attributing it to its "dormitive virtue" (i.e., soporific power). Thomas Henry Huxley drew a parallel, suggesting that vitalism was akin to asserting that water possesses its properties due to its "aquosity." In 1926, his grandson, Julian Huxley, further likened "vital force" or élan vital to explaining the function of a railroad locomotive by invoking its élan locomotif ("locomotive force").

A further critique, predating the emergence of organic chemistry and developmental biology, contends that vitalists have consistently failed to exclude mechanistic explanations. In 1912, Jacques Loeb published The Mechanistic Conception of Life, detailing experiments that, as Bertrand Russell articulated in Religion and Science, demonstrated how a sea urchin could effectively be "fathered" by a pin. Loeb subsequently presented the following challenge:

... we must either succeed in producing living matter artificially, or we must find the reasons why this is impossible.

Loeb proceeded to address vitalism with greater explicitness:

Consequently, it is unfounded to assert that, beyond the acceleration of oxidations, the onset of individual life is determined by a metaphysical "life principle" entering the egg, or that death results from this "principle" departing the body, separate from the cessation of oxidations. For instance, the kinetic theory of gases sufficiently explains water evaporation, precluding the need to consider the disappearance of "aquosity," a concept humorously dismissed by Huxley.

Bechtel asserts that vitalism "is often viewed as unfalsifiable, and therefore a pernicious metaphysical doctrine." Many scientists considered "vitalist" theories to be inadequate provisional explanations, merely placeholders on the path toward a mechanistic understanding. In 1967, Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA's structure, prophesied to vitalists: "what everyone believed yesterday, and you believe today, only cranks will believe tomorrow."

Although numerous vitalistic theories, such as Mesmerism, have been demonstrably falsified, the pseudoscientific adherence to untested and untestable theories persists. Alan Sokal analyzed the widespread acceptance of "scientific theories" of spiritual healing among professional nurses. Sokal specifically reviewed the technique known as therapeutic touch, concluding that "nearly all the pseudoscientific systems to be examined in this essay are based philosophically on vitalism" and further noting that "Mainstream science has rejected vitalism since at least the 1930s, for a plethora of good reasons that have only become stronger with time."

Joseph C. Keating, Jr. examines vitalism's historical and contemporary roles within chiropractic, characterizing it as "a form of bio-theology." He elaborates:

Vitalism represents a discredited biological tradition asserting that life is sustained and elucidated by an immeasurable, intelligent force or energy. The purported effects of vitalism are merely the manifestations of life itself, which then serve as the initial basis for inferring the concept, creating a circular argument. This circular reasoning provides a pseudo-explanation, potentially misleading us into believing a biological aspect has been explained when, in reality, only our ignorance has been labeled. As chiropractor Joseph Donahue suggests, "Explaining an unknown (life) with an unknowable (Innate) is absurd."

Keating considers vitalism to be irreconcilable with scientific methodology:

Chiropractors are not unique in acknowledging the human physiological capacity for self-repair and auto-regulation. However, their unwavering adherence to vitalism distinguishes them conspicuously among professions purporting to be scientifically grounded. As long as the "One cause, one cure" rhetoric of Innate is propagated, ridicule from the broader health science community is to be anticipated. Chiropractic cannot simultaneously embrace contradictory positions. Their theories cannot be both dogmatically vitalistic constructs and scientifically valid concurrently. The teleological, conscious, and rigid aspects of the Palmers' concept of Innate ought to be repudiated.

Keating further references Skinner's perspective:

Vitalism manifests in diverse forms and has emerged across numerous scientific disciplines. For instance, psychologist B.F. Skinner highlighted the irrationality of attributing behavior to internal mental states and traits. He contended that such "mental way stations" constitute superfluous theoretical constructs that impede the development of cause-and-effect explanations by substituting an inscrutable psychology of "mind."

Williams states that "[t]oday, vitalism is one of the ideas that form the basis for many pseudoscientific health systems that claim that illnesses are caused by a disturbance or imbalance of the body's vital force." While vitalists assert scientific legitimacy, they fundamentally reject the scientific method, including its core tenets of causality and verifiability. Frequently, they prioritize subjective experience over objective material reality.

Victor Stenger clarifies that in biochemistry, "bioenergetics" denotes the quantifiable energy exchanges occurring within organisms and between organisms and their environment, which are governed by conventional physical and chemical processes. However, he notes that this definition diverges from the concept held by new vitalists, who envision the bioenergetic field as a holistic, living force transcending reductionist physics and chemistry.

This proposed field is occasionally characterized as electromagnetic, although some proponents also invoke quantum physics in a manner that Stenger deems confused. Joanne Stefanatos asserts that "The principles of energy medicine originate in quantum physics." Stenger, however, provides multiple arguments challenging this rationale. He explains that energy manifests in discrete units known as quanta, and consequently, energy fields are constituted by these individual components, existing only when quanta are present. Thus, energy fields are not holistic but rather systems of discrete elements that must adhere to physical laws. This implies that energy fields are not instantaneous. These fundamental aspects of quantum physics impose constraints on the notion of an infinite, continuous field, which some theorists employ to describe purported "human energy fields." Stenger further elaborates that physicists have measured the effects of electromagnetic forces with an accuracy of one part in a billion, yet no evidence has emerged to suggest that living organisms emit a unique, distinct field.

Vitalistic thought patterns have been observed in the rudimentary biological theories developed by children. "Recent experimental results indicate that most preschoolers are inclined to favor vitalistic explanations as the most plausible. Vitalism, alongside other forms of intermediate causality, forms distinct causal mechanisms within naive biology as a fundamental cognitive domain."

Animal magnetism – A pseudoscientific theory positing a force within living organisms.

• Animal magnetism – Pseudoscientific theory about force in living things
• Argument from ignorance – An informal logical fallacy.
• Henri Bergson – A French philosopher (1859–1941).
• Georges Canguilhem – A French philosopher (1904–1995).
• Egregore – An occult concept.
• Élan vital – A hypothetical explanation for the evolution and development of organisms.
• Emergentism – A philosophical belief centered on the concept of emergence.
• Energy (esotericism) – A term employed in esoteric spiritual practices and alternative medicine.
• Energy medicine – A pseudoscientific form of alternative medicine.
• Etheric body – A concept within neo-Theosophy.
• Holism in science – A research approach that prioritizes the study of complex systems.
• Homeopathy – A pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine.
• Hylozoism – A philosophical doctrine asserting that all matter possesses life.
• Irreducible complexity – An argument advanced by proponents of intelligent design.
• Lebensphilosophie – A German philosophical movement.
• Mana (Oceanian cultures) – A concept representing life force energy, power, effectiveness, and prestige within Pacific Island cultures.
• Manitou – A fundamental life force in Algonquian mythologies of North America.
• Medicus curat, natura sanat – A medical aphorism meaning "the physician treats, nature heals."
• Mind–body dualism – A philosophical theory.
• Montpellier vitalism – A medical and philosophical school of thought.
• Morphic resonance (Rupert Sheldrake) – A concept proposed by the English author and parapsychological researcher Rupert Sheldrake (born 1942).
• Odic force – A hypothetical vital energy or life force.
• Orenda – The Iroquois term for a spiritual power believed to be inherent in individuals and their environment.
• Orgone – A pseudoscientific concept developed by Wilhelm Reich.
• Orthogenesis – A hypothesis suggesting that organisms possess an inherent tendency to evolve toward a specific goal.
• Prana – A Sanskrit term signifying "life force" or "vital principle."
• Protoscience – A research field that holds the potential to develop into a recognized science.
• Qi – A vital force in traditional Chinese philosophy.
• Ratiovitalism (José Ortega y Gasset) – A philosophical concept associated with the Spanish philosopher and essayist José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955).
• Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism – Investigations conducted by French scientific bodies in 1784, which involved systematic controlled trials.
• Spirit (animating force) – A vital principle or animating force believed to exist within all living entities.
• Theory of impetus – A theory concerning projectile motion.
• Vis medicatrix naturae – A Latin phrase affirming the inherent self-healing capacity of the body.
• Vital materialism (Jane Bennett) – A concept developed by the American political theorist Jane Bennett.
• Vitality refers to the inherent capacity for an organism to sustain life, grow, or develop.

Notes

References

Sources

• Birch, Charles; Cobb, John B (1985). The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community. CUP Archive. ISBN 9780521315142.History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences. Vol. 29. 2007.
  • Vitalism on In Our Time at the BBC
  • For vital force and vitalism in the Spanish context, see Nicolás Fernández-Medina's Life Embodied: The Promise of Vital Force in Spanish Modernity (McGill-Queen's UP, 2018).