vitalistinen

Vitalistinen is an adjective derived from vitalism, used to describe ideas, theories, or positions that appeal to a life force or vital principle as fundamental to living beings. In Finnish and broader European usage, vitalistinen characterizes thought that posits a non-physical or organizing principle beyond purely mechanical or chemical explanations of life.

Historically, vitalism emerged in early modern natural philosophy and gained prominence in the 18th and 19th centuries as scholars sought explanations for growth, development, and organismal organization that could not be reduced to inanimate matter alone. The concept often invoked terms such as vis vitalis or an ethical or organizational life force. In biology, proponents argued that living processes required something beyond the laws governing non-living systems. The rise of experimental biochemistry, genetics, and cell biology, along with debates about emergent properties, contributed to the gradual decline of vitalism as a mainstream scientific framework. Key figures in vitally oriented thinking included scientists and philosophers who emphasized self-organization or an organizing principle, though many shifted toward mechanistic or emergent explanations.

In contemporary discourse, vitalistinen refers mainly to historical or polemical descriptions rather than a prevailing scientific program. In philosophy and the humanities, discussions about vitality, life principles, and teleology persist in more nuanced forms, such as emergentism or debates about teleological explanations, but modern biology generally treats vitalism as obsolete in its classical sense.