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

  • Driesch, Hans, 1867-1941.
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.

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    body. Yet it was stated earlier that the cause of the differentiation cannot lie outside the germ. How is this knot to be unravelled ? An answer is found in the admission that, under certain circumstances, a thing can come into being by the action of something outside it. At this point Aristotle reintroduces in a much wider form than before that scheme, which he had not considered applicable in the case of one organ being formed out of another, for instance, the liver out of the heart : “ there is something which forms the parts, though not directly as an identifiable entity, nor yet as if the final development were already existent in it.” 1 Morphogenesis as a whole is rather to be regarded as a kind of artistic creation : “ The manner in which each part arises must be deduced from the principle that everything which comes into existence either in nature or in art, arises by something actually existent (inr evepyela ovrog), out of something, of a similar nature, potentially existent (Svmjaei). Now the seed is such, and with such an impulse and principle, that, when the impulse ceases, each part comes into being and comes moreover endowed with soul.” 2 This then is the main outline of the Aristotelian theory of development. The view, also elaborated, that each organic part is endowed with soul, that for instance a dead eye is improperly so called, is 1 The original is : ore p.ev odv iart tl o iroiei, ovx ovrm bk cos rode tl, out)’ ivdnrapxov cos TereXeapLevov to rrpuiTov drjXov. (De gen. an. II. i. 41.) 2r6 fj£v odv <J7T<: pp.0. TOLOVTOV K(XL &X€L KlV7]fflV Kal &pX'>]v TOlWJT7]V} ware Travop.ivrjs tt]s Kivrjcreojs ylvecrdcu ^Kaurov tCov [xoplcov Kal £p,\pvxov.