Concept
Élan vital
Overview
Élan vital (French pronunciation: [elɑ̃ vital]) is a term coined by French philosopher Henri Bergson in his 1907 book Creative Evolution, in which he addresses the question of self-organisation and spontaneous morphogenesis of things in an increasingly complex manner. Élan vital was translated in the English edition as "vital impetus", but is usually translated by his detractors as "vital force". It is a hypothetical explanation for evolution and development of organisms, which Bergson linked closely with consciousness – the intuitive perception of experience and the flow of inner time.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
Thus, having started entirely from the passive element in the good, the inquiry could only proceed later to the active element, and investigate the conduct of the man who is called good, no longer with reference to others, but to himself; specially setting itself the task of explaining both the purely objective respect which such conduct produces in others, and the peculiar contentment with himself which it clearly…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
States what Élan vital is; the author is tied to Élan vital in the knowledge graph.
The gates of its prison close as soon as they are opened; by pulling at its chain it succeeds only in stretching it. With man, consciousness breaks the chain. In man, and in man alone, it sets itself free. The whole history of life until man has been that of the effort of consciousness to raise matter, and of the more or less complete overwhelming of consciousness by the matter which has fallen back on it. The…
Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution
The author is tied to Élan vital in the knowledge graph.
At one time or another, by some operation of force which still completely baffles conjecture, the properties of life were awakened in lifeless matter. Perhaps the process was a prototype resembling that other one which later in a certain stratum of living matter gave rise to consciousness.
Sigmund Freud, Beyond the pleasure principle
Close in meaning to Élan vital; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed Élan vital
Related ideas
- Gilles Deleuze
- Second law of thermodynamics
- Henri Bergson
- Philosophy
- Zeno of Elea
- Julian Huxley
- Vitalism
- Will to life
- Stoicism
- Rice University
- Secular humanism
- Mysticism
- United Kingdom
- Baruch Spinoza
- Emergence
- Consciousness
- C. S. Lewis
- France
- Arthur Schopenhauer
- Developmental biology
- Spontaneous order
- Posidonius
- Evolution
- Creative Evolution (book)
Place in the tradition
Part of Eliminative materialism.