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- Dictionaryvital force
noun
- 1. the energy or spirit which animates living creatures; the soul: "the principle which animates the human being can be visualized as the vital force"
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noun. (esp in early biological theory) a hypothetical force, independent of physical and chemical forces, regarded as being the causative factor of the evolution and development of living organisms.
Vital force is a hypothetical force or principle that animates and perpetuates living beings and organisms. Learn more about its meaning, synonyms, pronunciation, and usage in sentences from Collins English Dictionary.
Vital force is a concept in vitalism, a school of scientific thought that explains life as resulting from a force unique to living organisms. Learn about the origin, development and criticism of vitalism and vital force from Britannica articles.
vitalism, school of scientific thought—the germ of which dates from Aristotle—that attempts (in opposition to mechanism and organicism) to explain the nature of life as resulting from a vital force peculiar to living organisms and different from all other forces found outside living things.
Learn about the vital force theory, which proposed that only living organisms could create organic compounds from non-organic ones. Find out how this theory was disputed by later scientists and what it meant for the definition of organic and inorganic compounds.
Where vitalism explicitly invokes a vital principle, that element is often referred to as the "vital spark", "energy", "élan vital" (coined by vitalist Henri Bergson), "vital force", or "vis vitalis", which some equate with the soul.
Jan 16, 2022 · Vitalism encapsulates people’s historical understanding of nature and life as a unique force. There have been various historical forms of vitalism, as well as various...
