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💃 Full of life ✨ Life-force belief
vitalistic

vitalistic

9.9
Relating to the belief that living things have a special force not physical
  • adjective
  • /ˌvaɪtəˈlɪstɪk/
  • Archaic
translation icon : vitalista
  • Vitalistic thinking persists today, notably among many proponents of some popular forms of so-called alternative medicine (sCAM) who also tend to be proponents of "organic food."

Examples

  • The term came about because of vitalistic thinking suggesting that a life force was necessary to create the chemicals in living organisms.

    Blog text (24)

  • The movie appears to be "gateway" pseudoscience, designed to suck people in with reasonable-sounding claims about diet and then sell them on a prescientific, vitalistic view of the world wrapped up in the naturalistic fallacy.

    Blog text (28)

  • Many alternative medicine practitioners hold a vitalistic view, believing that a unique life force influences the body's health and healing.

  • The vitalistic philosophy asserts that living organisms have an essential force that cannot be explained solely by physical or chemical processes.

  • Critics argue that vitalistic theories lack scientific evidence, as they propose that life is governed by forces beyond conventional biology.

Synonyms

bioplasmic
vsvitalistic
  • Jargon
1 9.9

Relating to a supposed life energy that people say surrounds living things

frames life as driven by a force separate from physical or chemical processes

How Hypothetical

vitalistic
  • Archaic
9.9
psychic energy
  • Archaic
4 9.3
life force
  • Archaic
5 8.8
energy
  • Specialized
∞ 1.6

Surface Forms

vitalistic positive

Morphology

vitalistic = vital (semi-transparent) = vital + istic

While the suffix '-istic' is clear, the specific philosophical meaning related to vitalism may not be obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Vitalistic comes from the root vita 'life' and is related to vitalism, the idea that living things have a special 'life force' beyond physics or chemistry. That's why a vitalistic view says life is driven by that extra force.