Hylozoism

Sphera volgare, featuring the Sun, the Moon, the winds and the stars as living. Woodcut illustration from an edition of De sphaera mundi, Venice, 1537.

Hylozoism is the philosophical doctrine according to which all matter is alive or animated,[clarification needed][1] either in itself or as participating in the action of a superior principle, usually the world-soul (anima mundi).[2] The theory holds that matter is unified with life or spiritual activity.[3] The word is a 17th-century term formed from the Greek words ὕλη (hyle: "wood, matter") and ζωή (zoē: "life"), which was coined by the English Platonist philosopher Ralph Cudworth in 1678.

  1. ^ McColley, Diane Kelsey (2007). Poetry and Ecology in the Age of Milton and Marvell. Hampshire, UK: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-7546-6048-4.
  2. ^ Strauss, Daniel (January 2014). "Hylozoism and hylomorphism: a lasting legacy of Greek philosophy". Phronimon. 15 (1). Pretoria: University of South Africa on behalf of the South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities: 32–45. doi:10.25159/2413-3086/2211. ISSN 2413-3086 – via SciELO.
  3. ^ Yuasa, Yasuo (2008). Overcoming Modernity: Synchronicity and Image-Thinking. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-0-7914-7401-3.