%0 Journal Article
%T From substantival to functional vitalism and beyond: animas, organisms and attitudes.
%A Charles T. Wolfe
%J Eidos
%D 2011
%I Universidad del Norte
%X I distinguish between ¡®substantival¡¯ and ¡®functional¡¯ forms of vitalism in the eighteenth century. Substantival vitalism presupposes the existence of a (substantive) vital force which either plays a causal role in the natural world as studied scientifically, or remains an immaterial, extra-causal entity. Functional vitalism tends to operate ¡®post facto¡¯, from the existence of living bodies to the search for explanatory models that will account for their uniquely ¡®vital¡¯ properties better than fully mechanistic models can. I discuss representative figures of the Montpellier school (Bordeu, M¨¦nuret, Fouquet) as functional rather than substantival vitalists, and suggest an additional point regarding the reprisal of vitalism(s) in the 20th century, from Driesch to Canguilhem: that in addition to the substantival and functional varieties, we encounter a third species of vitalism, which I term ¡®attitudinal¡¯, as it argues for vitalism as a kind of attitude.
%K Vitalism
%K substantival vitalism
%K functional vitalism
%K attitudinal vitalism
%K Montpellier School
%K Driesch
%K Canguilhem
%U http://rcientificas.uninorte.edu.co/index.php/eidos/article/view/2144/1381