A metaphysical doctrine, originating perhaps with Aristotle (384-322 BP), that the functions of all living organisms stem from some vital force (variously termed √©lag vital‚aa or ‚aaentelchy‚aa) that cannot be accounted for in chemical, mechanical or physical terms. It can be seen as a form of pluralism (i.e., reality consists of more than one type of substance or principle) allied to the dualism of the mind and body, together with some inner force or energy. Initially, the supporters of both epigenesis and preformationism subscribed to such a doctrine. However, with the invention of the light microscope by Robert Hooke (1635-1703) and then the single lens microscope by Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) that gave greater resolving power, some epigeneticists (but not van Leeuwenhoek) discarded vitalism and began to search for the materialistic determinants of growth and development. Vitalism, in one form or other, continued to influence theorising in biology and medicine into the 19th century, and even experienced something of a resurgence at the beginning of the 20th century through the writings of the philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) and the embryologist Hans Driesch (1867-1941). Driesch, an epigeneticist turned preformationist, coined the term ‚aaentelechy‚aa, and Bergson that of ‚aa√©lag vital‚aa. Remnants of vitalistic thinking are still to be found today in concepts such as innateness‚aa and ‚aainstincts‚aa, as well as in the sort of non-holonomic constraints that typify information-processing models of behavior.
See Constraints, Dualism, Epigenesis, Information-processing theories, Innate, Instinct, Lamarckism, Mind-body, Nativism, problem, Preformationism