Some reflections on vitalism and indeterminism

Abstract

This paper considers a series of unresolved matters from scientific debates in the 19th century about vitalism and indeterminism. Beginning with everyday experiences of being alive, which at times invoke agency in relation to both the human and the non-human world, alongside the cognitive bias of blaming others and excusing ourselves, the paper moves into an overview of those earlier debates, in a period when psychology was emerging as a discipline separated from philosophy. One common account is that vitalism was put into the dustbin of history by a form of scientific rationalism (which was avowedly reductionist about causes and completely deterministic in its logic). However, the paper considers the various ways in which vitalism and indeterminism have remained important in the academy, across the disciplines. A critical realist position is offered at the end in order to draw out implications of this lack of resolution of older debates for contemporary psychology.