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Elan vital   /ˈilən vˈaɪtəl/   Listen
Elan vital

noun
1.
(biology) a hypothetical force (not physical or chemical) once thought by Henri Bergson to cause the evolution and development of organisms.  Synonyms: life force, vital force, vitality.






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"Elan vital" Quotes from Famous Books



... much of the "will to live", which was, in his view, as unconscious as it was fundamental, and only secondarily gave rise to the conscious life of sensations and ideas. Bergson's "elan vital" has much the same meaning. In a sense, the will to live is the fountain of all our wishes; in another sense, it is the sum total of them all; and in another sense, it is an abstraction, the concrete facts consisting in the various particular wishes ...
— Psychology - A Study Of Mental Life • Robert S. Woodworth



Words linked to "Elan vital" :   biological science, force, biology



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