VITALISM
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3749 ▶ |
| Object type | Discipline oriented, General information, Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
- “The theory that life is maintained by some special force that cannot be explained by the principles of physics and chemistry” (J.Z. YOUNG, 1974, p.300).
As noted by YOUNG, this theory was closely related to DRIESCH's entelechy.
It was a purely verbalist pseudo-explanation, but it had the merit to consider living beings specificity and to trigger a controversy which led in a first step to BERTALANFFY and WOODGER's organicism, and from there to the concept of system, which emphasized the importance of internal interrelations and organization.
Later on, MATURANA and VARELA's organizational closure, and EIGEN's Hypercycle introduced a clearer explanation for the maintenance of organization in living systems. On the other hand, PRIGOGINE showed that a correct extension of thermodynamics to open systems, especially those faraway from equilibrium, could constitute a physical explanation of the evolution of life.