The doctrine that the functions of a living organism are due to a vital principal force distinct from physical forces.
The concept that bodily functions are due to a “vital principle” or “life force” that is distinct from the physical forces explainable by the laws of chemistry and physics. Many alternative approaches to modern medicine are rooted in vitalism.
The idea of a vital force existing in all living creatures has ancient roots going back at least as far as Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.). In his general philosophy of nature, an attempt at classification postulated a continuous chain or series in which similar organisms were set next to each other; he had inorganic stones at one end of the chain and human beings at the other. Somewhere early on in the scale, Aristotle had to explain the difference between the nonliving and the living; he did this by theorizing that the heat produced from living organisms was part of their vital heat, which had its source at the center of the body, probably in the heart, and spread around the body before being expelled by the breath.