Page "Animism" Paragraph 18

Some early scientists such as Georg Ernst Stahl ( 1659-1734 ) and Francisque Bouillier ( 1813 – 1899 ) had supported a form of animism which life and mind, the directive principle in evolution and growth, holding that all cannot be traced back to chemical and mechanical processes, but that there is a directive force which guides energy without altering its amount.

An entirely different class of ideas, also termed animistic, is the belief in the world soul anima mundi, held by philosophers such as Schelling and others.

In the early 20th century William McDougall defended a form of animism in his book Body and Mind: A History and Defence of Animism ( 1911 ).