Vitalism

Vitalism is the doctrine that living organisms are fundamentally different from nonliving matter because they possess a vital principle or life force that cannot be reduced to or explained solely by physical and chemical laws. Proponents argue that life involves organizing principles that set organisms apart from inanimate systems, and that certain processes in living beings cannot be fully accounted for by mechanics alone.

Historically, vitalism has roots in ancient and early modern thought. Philosophers drew on notions of teleology and an “entelechy” or inner organizing principle. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Georg Ernst Stahl argued for a vis vitalis, a distinct life force that governs growth and organization. This view stood in contrast to mechanistic explanations that sought to describe life entirely through chemistry and physics, a tension that persisted into the 19th century.

In the scientific debates of the 19th and early 20th centuries, vitalism faced significant challenges. The discovery that organic compounds could be synthesized from inorganic materials, exemplified by Wöhler’s synthesis of urea in 1828, weakened the argument that life required a special force. Nevertheless, some researchers, notably Hans Driesch, argued that embryonic development demonstrated an organizing principle beyond straightforward mechanical causation, a stance sometimes labeled entelechial or vitalist. Over time, mainstream biology came to explain biological processes through known physical and chemical laws, leaving vitalism largely as a historical position.

Today, vitalism is typically studied as a historical and philosophical concept. It persists in discussions of life’s organizing principles, and in some non-scientific or holistic contexts, but it remains outside mainstream scientific consensus.