entelechy

American  

[en-tel-uh-kee] / ɛnˈtɛl ə ki /

noun

entelechies plural

1. a realization or actuality as opposed to a potentiality.

2. (in vitalist philosophy) a vital agent or force directing growth and life.

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entelechy British  

/ ɛnˈtɛlɪkɪ /

noun

1. (in the philosophy of Aristotle) actuality as opposed to potentiality

2. (in the system of Leibnitz) the soul or principle of perfection of an object or person; a monad or basic constituent

3. something that contains or realizes a final cause, esp the vital force thought to direct the life of an organism

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• entelechial
  adjective

Inflected Forms

noun

• entelechies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of entelechy

1595–1605; < Late Latin entelechīa < Greek entelécheia, equivalent to en- en- ² + tél ( os ) goal + éch ( ein ) to have + -eia -y ³

Example Sentences

In 1899, by fertilizing sea-urchin eggs with chemicals and producing young larvae, he struck a heavy blow at the popular vitalistic theory which maintained that some intangible "vital spirit" or "entelechy" was necessary to life.

From Time Magazine Archive

Shall we say with Aristotle, that the soul is the entelechy or form of an organized living body? or with Plato, that she has a life of her own?

From Phaedo by Jowett, Benjamin

The existence of God is an eternally perfect entelechy, a life everlasting.

From A Short History of Greek Philosophy by Marshall, John

For Aristotle it was the substantial form of the body—the entelechy, but not a substance.

From Tragic Sense Of Life by Flitch, J. E. Crawford (John Ernest Crawford)

Digby rejects an internal agent, entelechy, or the Aristotelian formal and efficient causes.

From Medical Investigation in Seventeenth Century England Papers Read at a Clark Library Seminar, October 14, 1967 by Bodemer, Charles W.