DRIESCH, Hans. - Biologist and philosopher, b. at Kreuznach on 28 Oct. 1867, d. on 16 Apr. 1941. He studied at Hamburg, Freiburg, Munich, and Jena, where he graduated (1889) in natural sciences.
He was a pupil of Haeckel, but soon distanced himself from him and formed a friendship with G. F. Wolff and W. Roux. From 1891 to 1900 he worked at the Zoological Station in Naples and then went to Heidelberg, where in 1911 he became professor of philosophy. In 1920 he taught natural philosophy at Cologne and in 1921 was appointed professor in Berlin. He traveled extensively in China and America and received various honorary degrees and recognitions from many academies.
He began his scientific activity under Haeckel’s guidance, but later, while influenced by the teachings of Wolff and Roux, he became the advocate of dynamic vitalism. His doctrine that the functions of protoplasm cannot be explained mechanically stems from his results on the regularity of sea urchin eggs, which demonstrated how isolated blastomeres can give rise to complete embryos.
Based on these experiments, he concluded that the organism must be a harmonious, equipotential system possessing an individualizing “entelechy” that works through matter with a view to the whole.
His antimechanistic stance in the psychological sphere is expressed in Philosophie des Organischen (2 vols., Leipzig 1909), Analytische Theorie der organischen Entwicklung (ibid. 1894), Science and Philosophy of the Organism (Gifford Lectures 1907–1908), History and Theory of Vitalism (1914), The Problem of Individuality (1914), Wissen und Denken (Leipzig 1919), Leib und Seele (ibid. 1920).
Together with W. Roux he founded Entwicklungsmechanik, now more properly called, with G. F. Wolff, developmental physiology. Driesch’s vitalist conception is now much contested.