VITALISM 



By L. DONCASTER 



Fellow of King's College, Cambridge 



One of the most characteristic movements of recent biological 

 thought has been the renewed interest in vitalistic hypotheses. 

 The mechanical conception of living things has presented diffi- 

 culties unknown thirty years ago and the belief then widely 

 held that the difficulties in the way of a physico-chemical theory 

 of life would rapidly disappear with increased knowledge has 

 not been justified. Hence philosophical biologists like Driesch 

 and J. A. Thomson and biological philosophers like Bergson have 

 fallen back on the belief that life is more than organic chemistry 

 and the physics of colloids and that some extra-physical 

 entity must be imagined if the phenomena are to be explained. 



Foremost among modern vitalists is undoubtedly Hans 

 Driesch. His theory of life is so closely interwoven with 

 philosophy that it may seem rash for a mere biologist to discuss 

 his views but biologists of the anti-vitalistic school have done 

 him such scant justice that in fairness some answer from the 

 same quarter is required. It is not difficult, if we take certain 

 features of various vitalistic hypotheses which are not necessarily 

 in agreement among themselves, to find inconsistencies and 

 even absurdities but it is hardly fair to treat in this way a far- 

 reaching and coherent theory like that of Driesch. The vitalism 

 of Driesch rests essentially on a double foundation : the im- 

 possibility (according to him) of finding a mechanical explana- 

 tion, on the one hand, of growth and regeneration, on the other 

 hand, of conscious action. Most critics deal only with the 

 former and for the present we will follow them, taking for the 

 moment as an example a thoughtful discussion of the matter 

 recently published by Dr. Jenkinson. 1 He says quite rightly 

 that Driesch founds the first part of his argument on the fact 

 that any part of the egg of certain animals can give rise to a 

 whole larva with all its parts in proportion. " Each part of the 



1 Hibbert Journal, April, 191 1. 

 386 



