x VITALITY 187 



(b) To others it seems that living creatures have a 

 monopoly of some peculiar physical energy or energies 

 in a line with, say, electricity. They believe that there 

 is evidence of the operation of this peculiar power or 

 powers in processes like cell-division or like the differ- 

 entiation of the embryo. 



(c) More thoroughgoing is the view of the whole- 

 hearted " vitalists," who postulate for all organisms, 

 plants and animals alike, a non-perceptual vital agency, 

 operating actively in certain cases, directing the chemico- 

 physical processes, so that the results are different from 

 what they would have been apart from intervention. 

 The finest expression of this view is the doctrine of 

 " Entelechy ' developed by Driesch in his treatise on 

 The Science and Philosophy of the Organism. 



(d) Perhaps, however, it is safer in the meantime to be 

 content with what may be called a descriptive or methodo- 

 logical vitalism, admirably stated by E. S. Russell. 1 

 Those who occupy this position hold that chemical and 

 physical formulations do not suffice to answer the dis- 

 tinctively biological questions, do not adequately cover 

 what is characteristic in the functions, behaviour, de- 

 velopment, and evolution of living creatures, do not serve 

 to exhaust the reality of the organism. Furthermore, 

 that we require ultra-mechanical, notably historical, 

 concepts for describing organisms. For the organism 

 is a psycho-physical individuality (a mind-body or body- 

 mind) which has enregistered within itself the gains of 

 experience and experiment, and has ever its conative 

 bow bent towards the future. Instead of trying to 

 interpolate a new agency, such as " Vital Force," Vital 

 Principle," or " Entelechy," may we not simply recognise 

 that in the realm of organisms there are revealed certain 

 aspects of reality which do not at any rate assert them- 

 selves or demand to be allowed for in the domain of the 



inorganic 



Vitalism," Scientia, April 1911, 



