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{{short description|Hypothetical explanation for evolution and development of organisms}} |
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{{other uses|Elan Vital (disambiguation)}} |
{{other uses|Elan Vital (disambiguation)}} |
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'''''Élan |
'''''Élan vital''''' ({{IPA|fr|elɑ̃ vital}}) is a term coined by [[France|French]] [[philosopher]] [[Henri Bergson]] in his 1907 book ''[[Creative Evolution (book)|Creative Evolution]]'', in which he addresses the question of [[self-organisation]] and [[spontaneous order|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".{{cn|reason=This statement is not backed up by the following reference.|date=July 2024}} It is a hypothetical explanation for [[evolution]] and [[developmental biology|development]] of [[organisms]], which Bergson linked closely with [[consciousness]] – the intuitive perception of experience and the flow of inner time.<ref>S. Atkinson ed., ''The Philosophy Book'' (2011) p. 227</ref> |
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==Precursors== |
==Precursors== |
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Distant anticipations of Bergson can be found in the work of the pre-Christian [[Stoicism|Stoic]] philosopher [[Posidonius]], who postulated a "vital force" emanated by the sun to all living creatures on the Earth's surface, and in that of [[Zeno of Elea]].<ref>Eric Benre, ''A Layman's Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis'' (1976) p. 98-9</ref> |
Distant anticipations of Bergson can be found in the work of the pre-Christian [[Stoicism|Stoic]] philosopher [[Posidonius]], who postulated a "vital force" emanated by the sun to all living creatures on the Earth's surface, and in that of [[Zeno of Elea]].<ref>Eric Benre, ''A Layman's Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis'' (1976) p. 98-9</ref> The concept of ''élan vital'' is also similar to [[Baruch Spinoza]]'s concept of [[conatus]] as well as [[Arthur Schopenhauer]]'s concept of the [[will to live|will-to-live]]<ref>L. Vikka, ''The Intrinsic Value of Nature'' (1997) p. 56-7</ref> and the Sanskrit ''āyus'' or "life principle". |
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== Influence == |
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| ⚫ | The French philosopher [[Gilles Deleuze]] attempted to recoup the novelty of Bergson's idea in his book ''Bergsonism'', though the term itself underwent substantial changes by Deleuze. No longer considered a [[mystical]], elusive force acting on brute matter, as it was in the [[vitalism|vitalist]] debates of the late 19th century, ''élan vital'' in Deleuze's hands denotes an internal force,<ref>K. Ansell-Pearson, ''Germinal Life'' (2012) p. 21</ref> a substance in which the distinction between organic and inorganic matter is indiscernible, and the [[emergence]] of life undecidable. |
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==Later developments== |
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In 1912 [[Beatrice M. Hinkle]] wrote that [[Carl Gustav Jung]]'s conception of [[Libido#Analytical psychology|libido]] was similar to Bergson's élan vital.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jung |first=Carl Gustav |author-link=Carl Gustav Jung |date=1916 |title=Psychology of the Unconscious - A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, a Contribution to the History of the Evolution of Thought |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EXQRAAAAYAAJ |location=New York |publisher=Moffat, Yard and Company |page=xxvi |isbn=9780598448019}}</ref> |
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It was believed by some that this essence (''élan vital'') could be harvested and embedded into an inanimate substance and activated with electricity, perhaps taking literally another of Bergson's metaphorical descriptions, the "current of life".{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} |
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| ⚫ | The notion of ''élan vital'' had considerable influence on the psychiatrist and phenomenologist [[Eugène Minkowski]] and his own concept of a ''personal élan''<ref>H. Spiegelberg, ''Phenomenology in Psychology and Psychiatry'' (1972) p. 244</ref> – the element which keeps us in touch with a feeling of life.<ref>J. Picchione, ''The New Avant-Garde in Italy'' (2004) p. 16</ref> |
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| ⚫ | The French philosopher [[Gilles Deleuze]] attempted to recoup the novelty of Bergson's idea in his book ''Bergsonism'', though the term itself underwent substantial changes by Deleuze. No longer considered a [[mystical]], elusive force acting on brute matter, as it was in the [[vitalism|vitalist]] debates of the late 19th century, ''élan vital'' in Deleuze's hands denotes an internal force,<ref>K. Ansell-Pearson, ''Germinal Life'' (2012) p. 21</ref> a substance in which the distinction between organic and inorganic matter is indiscernible, and the emergence of life undecidable. |
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== Criticism == |
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| ⚫ | The notion of ''élan vital'' |
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{{further|Vitalism}} |
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| ⚫ | * The consensus of geneticists is that they see no "life force" other than the organisational matrix contained in the [[genes]] themselves, according to R.F. Weir.<ref>R. F. Weir, ed., ''Genes and Human Self-Knowledge'' (1994) p. 37</ref>{{better source needed|reason=This is presented as a current consensus, but the source is from 1994.|date=May 2021}} |
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The [[French Army in World War I|French army]] incorporated the doctrine of ''élan vital'' into its thinking during the leadup to the [[First World War]] by arguing that the spirit of individual soldiers was more improtant for victory than weapons.<ref name="MacMillan">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=ZZapAQAAQBAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s | title=The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 | publisher=[[Random House]] | author=MacMillan, Margaret | authorlink=Margaret MacMillan | year=2013 | location=[[New York]] | pages=258 | isbn=978-1-4000-6855-5}}</ref> |
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| ⚫ | * The [[United Kingdom|British]] [[secular humanist]] [[biologist]] [[Julian Huxley]] dryly remarked that Bergson's ''élan vital'' is no better an explanation of life than is explaining the operation of a railway engine by its ''élan locomotif'' ("locomotive driving force"). The same alleged epistemological fallacy is parodied in [[Molière]]'s ''[[Le Malade imaginaire]]'', where a [[quackery|quack]] "answers" the question of "Why does [[opium]] cause sleep?" with "Because of its [[Hypnotic|soporific]] power".<ref>''Mihi a docto doctore / Demandatur causam et rationem quare / Opium facit dormire. / A quoi respondeo, / Quia est in eo / Vertus dormitiva, / Cujus est natura / Sensus assoupire.'' [[:s:fr:Le Malade imaginaire/3ème intermède|Le Malade imaginaire, (French Wikisource)]]</ref> However, Huxley used the term ''élan vital'' in a more metaphorical sense: |
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| ⚫ | {{quote|When I was just last in New York, I went for a walk, leaving Fifth Avenue and the Business section behind me, into the crowded streets near the Bowery. And while I was there, I had a sudden feeling of relief and confidence. There was Bergson’s ''élan vital''—there was assimilation causing life to exert as much pressure, though embodied here in the shape of men, as it has ever done in the earliest year of evolution: there was the driving force of progress|lecture 1, n.p.,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080806205313/http://library.rice.edu/collections/WRC/finding-aids/manuscripts/0050/ J. Huxley papers] [[Rice University]] Library (via Internet archive) |
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</ref>}} |
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| ⚫ | * The author and popular Christian theologian [[C. S. Lewis]] rejected Bergson's concept in his essay ''The Weight of Glory'' stating "...even if all the happiness they promised could come to man on earth, yet still each generation would lose it by death, including the last generation of all, and the whole story would be nothing, not even a story, for ever and ever. Hence all the nonsense that Mr. Shaw puts into the final speech of Lilith, and Bergson's remark that the élan vital is capable of surmounting all obstacles, perhaps even death—as if we could believe that any social or biological development on this planet will delay the senility of the sun or reverse the [[second law of thermodynamics]]."<ref>C. S. Lewis, Essay Collection'' (2000) p. 99</ref> |
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== See also == |
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| ⚫ | * The [[United Kingdom|British]] [[biologist]] [[Julian Huxley]] remarked that |
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* [[Conatus]] |
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* [[Hylozoism]] |
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* [[Parable of the Invisible Gardener]] |
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== References == |
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{{Columns-list|3| |
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*[[Vitalism]] |
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*[[Recapitulation theory]] |
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{{Authority control}} |
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==References== |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Elan vital}} |
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elan vital}} |
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[[Category:Vitalism]] |
[[Category:Vitalism]] |
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[[Category:Concepts in metaphysics]] |
[[Category:Concepts in metaphysics]] |
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[[Category:Emergence]] |
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Latest revision as of 18:09, 23 October 2024
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".[citation needed] 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.[1]
Precursors
[edit]Distant anticipations of Bergson can be found in the work of the pre-Christian Stoic philosopher Posidonius, who postulated a "vital force" emanated by the sun to all living creatures on the Earth's surface, and in that of Zeno of Elea.[2] The concept of élan vital is also similar to Baruch Spinoza's concept of conatus as well as Arthur Schopenhauer's concept of the will-to-live[3] and the Sanskrit āyus or "life principle".
Influence
[edit]The French philosopher Gilles Deleuze attempted to recoup the novelty of Bergson's idea in his book Bergsonism, though the term itself underwent substantial changes by Deleuze. No longer considered a mystical, elusive force acting on brute matter, as it was in the vitalist debates of the late 19th century, élan vital in Deleuze's hands denotes an internal force,[4] a substance in which the distinction between organic and inorganic matter is indiscernible, and the emergence of life undecidable.
In 1912 Beatrice M. Hinkle wrote that Carl Gustav Jung's conception of libido was similar to Bergson's élan vital.[5]
The notion of élan vital had considerable influence on the psychiatrist and phenomenologist Eugène Minkowski and his own concept of a personal élan[6] – the element which keeps us in touch with a feeling of life.[7]
Criticism
[edit]- The consensus of geneticists is that they see no "life force" other than the organisational matrix contained in the genes themselves, according to R.F. Weir.[8][better source needed]
- The British secular humanist biologist Julian Huxley dryly remarked that Bergson's élan vital is no better an explanation of life than is explaining the operation of a railway engine by its élan locomotif ("locomotive driving force"). The same alleged epistemological fallacy is parodied in Molière's Le Malade imaginaire, where a quack "answers" the question of "Why does opium cause sleep?" with "Because of its soporific power".[9] However, Huxley used the term élan vital in a more metaphorical sense:
When I was just last in New York, I went for a walk, leaving Fifth Avenue and the Business section behind me, into the crowded streets near the Bowery. And while I was there, I had a sudden feeling of relief and confidence. There was Bergson’s élan vital—there was assimilation causing life to exert as much pressure, though embodied here in the shape of men, as it has ever done in the earliest year of evolution: there was the driving force of progress
— lecture 1, n.p.,[10]
- The author and popular Christian theologian C. S. Lewis rejected Bergson's concept in his essay The Weight of Glory stating "...even if all the happiness they promised could come to man on earth, yet still each generation would lose it by death, including the last generation of all, and the whole story would be nothing, not even a story, for ever and ever. Hence all the nonsense that Mr. Shaw puts into the final speech of Lilith, and Bergson's remark that the élan vital is capable of surmounting all obstacles, perhaps even death—as if we could believe that any social or biological development on this planet will delay the senility of the sun or reverse the second law of thermodynamics."[11]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ S. Atkinson ed., The Philosophy Book (2011) p. 227
- ^ Eric Benre, A Layman's Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis (1976) p. 98-9
- ^ L. Vikka, The Intrinsic Value of Nature (1997) p. 56-7
- ^ K. Ansell-Pearson, Germinal Life (2012) p. 21
- ^ Jung, Carl Gustav (1916). Psychology of the Unconscious - A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, a Contribution to the History of the Evolution of Thought. New York: Moffat, Yard and Company. p. xxvi. ISBN 9780598448019.
- ^ H. Spiegelberg, Phenomenology in Psychology and Psychiatry (1972) p. 244
- ^ J. Picchione, The New Avant-Garde in Italy (2004) p. 16
- ^ R. F. Weir, ed., Genes and Human Self-Knowledge (1994) p. 37
- ^ Mihi a docto doctore / Demandatur causam et rationem quare / Opium facit dormire. / A quoi respondeo, / Quia est in eo / Vertus dormitiva, / Cujus est natura / Sensus assoupire. Le Malade imaginaire, (French Wikisource)
- ^ J. Huxley papers Rice University Library (via Internet archive)
- ^ C. S. Lewis, Essay Collection (2000) p. 99