Vitalism - Research Article from World of Chemistry

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 2 pages of information about Vitalism.

Vitalism - Research Article from World of Chemistry

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 2 pages of information about Vitalism.
This section contains 454 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Vitalism Encyclopedia Article

Vitalism is a school of thought which postulates that life cannot be fully explained in physical material terms. According to vitalists, life, which in the material world is manifested as a physical process, emerges as a result of an immaterial impulse. Aristotle, who is regarded as the founder of scientific vitalism, believed that the soul, as a modality of life-energy, kept the organism alive. According to Aristotle, the soul affects the organism without being connected to it in a physical sense.

Historians of science often identify René Descartes as the great intellectual force that facilitated the switch from Aristotelian metaphysics to the more sober mechanistic-materialistic paradigm of modern mainstream science. A fervent Catholic, Descartes altered Aristotle's terminology, retaining, however, the fundamental idea that an organism, being a physical thing, receives direction from a spiritual entity.

Although the powerful mechanistic paradigm created by Isaac Newton (1642-1727) dominated the...

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This section contains 454 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Vitalism Encyclopedia Article
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Vitalism from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.