6. Asserting an inherent spark separates living things from the inanimate world, vitalism was one of the guiding principles of natural science for virtually all of human history
The belief that “living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element”, vitalism asserts all living beings innately house a principal element which is necessary for life. Often equated with the concept of a soul, this “vital spark” is purported by vitalists to be said building block, governing life by different natural mechanics than inanimate objects. Dating from the ancient world, both the earliest philosophies and sciences imparted by Egypt and Greece were founded upon vitalist conceptions, as well as the Far Eastern conception of the “chi”, and these ideas continued to maintain theoretical dominance well into the modern period.
Surviving the emergence of contemporary and rival scientific theories, notably the proposition of epigenesis in 1781 by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, the notion of a core living principle separating the material world remained central to understandings. Affecting medical practices for centuries, rather than treating symptoms per se, physicians habitually focused on efforts to re-balance the mythical life force. Gradually abandoned during the twentieth century, it was not until the discovery of DNA by Francis Crick in 1967 that vitalism was struck a fatal blow, with Crick himself taunting remaining vitalists as “cranks”. Today, without empirical evidence in support of vitalism, the scientific theory has become an abandoned relic of history.
