Richard Blasband - Concepts of Life Energy and Vitalism Through the Ages

The concept of a life energy or life force that animates life has been with us since antiquity in the Chinese concept of “chi“, and the East Indian concept of “prana“. In pre-modern times Aristotle thought that it was necessary in understanding the origin of life. He asked, “Why cannot the seed at its origin be so created, that it can turn into blood and flesh without itself having to be blood and flesh?“ and “How do these parts come into being: does the one form the other or do they simply arise one after the other?“ His answer was the soul. “The soul cannot exist without a body, yet it is not the body but rather something inherent in the body.“ It is, “..the principle of all things living“. “ If the eyes were a living being, then eyesight would be its soul, this being the substance as notion or form of the eye; and the eye would be the matter of the eyesight“. Aristotle maintained that the mere stuff or matter is not yet the real thing;