Vitalism, Heat, Gravity, Electricity, Magnetism, and Motion

As demonstrated in Chap. 2 , Driesch (1908) gave an interesting treatment of the relationship between the vital and the physical, or that between his entelechies and various physical entities or processes. In fact, within the history of science, Driesch’s approach was typical, rather than an exception. Similarly to Driesch, nearly all vitalists sought to define their doctrines through theoretically exploring the relationship between vital forces and physical phenomena. Consequently, it is unsurprising that historians of science have extensively researched intriguing subjects such as animal heat (Mendelsohn, 1964), animal electricity (Piccolino & Bresadola, 2013), animal magnetism (Alvarado, 2009), and animal motion (Williams, 2000; Gill & Lennox, 1994). Additionally, following Newton, the concept of gravity—often interpreted as indicating universal attraction—served as a significant basis for speculations about the nature of life during the eighteenth century (Hall, 1968; Wolfe, 2015). Moreover, prior to the nineteenth-century differentiation of the sciences from natural philosophy, vitalistic and physicalistic concepts were integrated into comprehensive philosophical systems intended to offer unified explanations of natural phenomena across various domains. Now, this chapter explores each of these topics based on existing literature, focusing on the complex interplay between vitalism and various physical concepts and theories, including heat, gravity, electricity and magnetism, motion, and ultimately, philosophy of nature. This chapter concludes by introducing the concept of physical vitalism.