Barend Vlaardingerbroek: The NZ science curriculum welcomes back the ‘vital force’

The Vital Force is a paranormal concept that was abandoned by science in the 19^th century. It remains prominent in various systems of metaphysics which is where it belongs, not in the science lab!

Vitalism – The philosophical doctrine that the phenomena of life cannot be explained in purely mechanical terms because there is something immaterial which distinguishes living from inanimate matter. - Collins online dictionary

Vitalism has become so disreputable a belief in the last fifty years that no biologist alive today would want to be classified as a vitalist. – Ernst Mayr 1988

It’s official – the doctrine of vitalism, the belief that there is a paranormal force present in living things that makes them living, is back in science. At least that is what the NCEA Chem & Bio Glossary appears to be asserting in relation to the Maori concept of mauri which it defines as, “The vital essence, life force of everything”.