民國時期的中國思想界瀰漫著「唯科學主義」氣氛。陳立夫的《唯生論》主要以中國傳統《易經》與儒學為主要思想成分，但卻因時代氛圍的影響而表現出「科學」的色彩。科學是造成近代西方文明突飛猛進的原因，但科學也衝擊了千百年來人類所形成的文明，生物科學方面的成就使人們對於知識論與倫理道德產生分歧的看法。科學亦為理性的象徵，科學帶來的衝擊亦使人們對於理性萬能的觀念產生懷疑，而產生了較為悲觀的「世紀末」(fin de siècle)思想。 生命哲學屬於「世紀末」思潮。它探討人生問題與科學無法處理的非理性，強調本能與直覺的作用為文明尋找新出路。這種思潮廣泛的表現在許多思想家之中，而對於各方面產生了影響。柏格森哲學即是此一思潮在二十世紀初的代表，並在世界範圍內造成大小不一的影響。孫中山在創作《孫文學說》時所主要參考的就是這一類思想家的著作，並間接地影響後來陳立夫《唯生論》對於孫中山思想的闡釋。

In the era of the Republic of China, Scientism was filled with the thinking circle of Chinese. Vitalism , whose author is Ch’en Li-Fu, derived its nutrition from The Book of Changes and the Confucianism as well. Meanwhile, it also displays scientific elements due to the distinguishing feature of this era. Science, in the modern world, has helped make a giant leap for Western civilization, and unintentionally brought about impacts in human civilizations, among which are the divided thoughts in biological science which caused conflicts in ethics and epistemology. Science is also the sign of rationality. The impact it brought has affected “rationally all-purpose” ideas, which created the pessimistic thoughts of “fin de siècle”. The philosophy of life belongs to the “fin de siècle” trend, which discusses life puzzles and non-rationality that science is unable to handle and finds its way through the interactions of instincts and intuitions. Bergson philosophy is a typical representative during the era and has its own influence in the early 20th century. Sun Yat-Sen mainly referred to it when writing Sun Wen Theory Consequently, this indirectly affected how Ch’en Li-Fu interpreted “Sun Yat-Sen thoughts” in Vitalism.