The history & theory of vitalism / by Hans Driesch ; authorised translation by C.K. Ogden.

  • Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history & theory of vitalism / by Hans Driesch ; authorised translation by C.K. Ogden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/256 (page 11)
    CHAPTER I. THE OLD VITALISM. (a) ARISTOTLE. In an historical exposition of Vitalism which keeps the typical always in view, Aristotle may on the whole be regarded as representative of Antiquity. Moreover, since his views on biological matters form the basis of all theorising right into the eighteenth century, he has also every right to be regarded as representative of the medieval and early modern con¬ ceptions of life. The analysis of the Aristotelian theory of life must therefore be one of the corner stones of any historical work on biology. Some parts of his works De Generatione Animalium and De Anima will come under consideration for our purpose. We shall begin by analysing the theoretical views exposed in the first of the above works in order that, after we have seen how Aristotle traces everything back to the activities of the soul, we may turn to the statements of the other, which are of a more fundamental nature. It is highly interesting to realise that the first exponent of a scientific “ vitalism ” takes as his