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1. Elan Vital

   Linked via "Darwinism"

   Historical Context and Philosophical Underpinnings
   The formulation of the élan vital was heavily influenced by contemporary debates surrounding Darwinism and neo-Lamarckian theories. Bergson argued that classical Darwinian selection, while accounting for modification, failed to explain the origin of novelty and the recurrent, albeit divergent, appearance of complex structures (like the eye) across unrelated phyla. He suggested that a unified, originating impetus—the élan vital—was distributed through matter, striving continually to overcome material resistance…