Will, Comprehension, Vitalism

The traditional debate, often rendered as 'Rationalism vs. Empiricism', and classified as 'Epistemological', is an expression of a more fundamental conflict--Intellectualism vs. Vitalism. The former holds that the desire to know is the highest human principle, while the latter, that the drive to stay alive is. In contrast, the concept, presented here, of Comprehension as fundamentally homeostatic, is Vitalistic, but without subordinating Comprehension to self-preservative processes. For, the life-principle that is proposed here, is what has previously been introduced as 'Evolvement', i. e. growth, and to Evolve combines a Formal Principle and a Material Principle, i. e. Comprehension and Will, respectively. Hence, even qua serving its homeostatic organic function, Comprehension, is, in this system, not depreciated, as are intellectual processes in the various traditional Vitalisms, e. g. Sentimentalism, Bergsonism, Existentialism, etc.