Hylozoism's the philosophical conjecture that all or some material things possess life, or that all life's inseparable from matter. The English term was introduced by Ralph Cudworth in 1678. Distinction from similar theories Although there's a distinction between possessing soul (panpsychism) and possessing life (hylozoism), in practice this division's difficult to maintain, because the ancient hylozoists not only regarded the spirits of the material universe and plant world as alive, but also… (More on Hylozoism)