Hylozoism

Hylozoism is the view that matter is inherently alive or possesses an intrinsic principle of life. It denies that matter is wholly inert, without necessarily claiming that all things think or feel.

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Thales of Miletus: A Greek philosopher traditionally regarded as the first in the Western philosophical tradition. Aristotle associated Thales with the claim that all things are full of gods, often linked to hylozoism.
Matter: Physical substance that occupies space, has mass, or constitutes physical bodies. Hylozoism makes a claim about matter itself rather than only about particular organisms.
Mechanism (philosophy): The view that natural phenomena can be explained through matter, motion, and mechanical laws. Mechanism treats matter as inert or law-governed, opposing hylozoism's intrinsic animation.
Renaissance natural philosophy: Early modern inquiry into nature that combined classical learning, observation, and speculative accounts of matter. Renaissance thinkers revived ancient ideas of an animated cosmos, including hylozoist themes.
Milesian school: An early Greek philosophical movement that sought natural explanations through underlying principles of the world. Its accounts of nature helped shape ancient ideas that matter could be animated from within.
Life: The condition distinguishing living organisms from nonliving systems, characterized by processes such as metabolism and reproduction. The view extends life or a life-principle beyond organisms.
Vitalism: The doctrine that living processes depend on a distinctive vital principle beyond ordinary physical and chemical processes. Vitalism limits its special life principle to living organisms, unlike hylozoism's extension to matter.
Giordano Bruno: An Italian philosopher who argued for an infinite universe containing innumerable worlds. Bruno described nature as animated and drew on traditions closely related to hylozoism.
Aristotle: An ancient Greek philosopher whose works systematized influential accounts of nature, life, and causation. His reports and criticism preserve key evidence about early Greek views of living matter.
Soul: A concept used in philosophy and religion for the principle of life, identity, or mental activity. Hylozoist theories often explain matter's animation through a soul-like principle.