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

Nouns

• 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

See Examples For:

entelechy entelechies

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

If the φυχη of Aristotle, the entelechy of a living body, is less spiritual than our "soul," it is because his οωμα, already impregnated with the Idea, is less corporeal than our "body."

From Creative Evolution by Mitchell, Arthur

The soul actualises the body, and becomes, as he said, its entelechy.

From The Mind and the Brain Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps by Binet, Alfred

It is the gospel of work: our endeavour must be to realise our best self in deed and action; to strive until our personality attains, in Aristotle's word, its entelechy; its full development.

From Maxims and Reflections by Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von

"The soul," he says, "is the first entelechy of an active body."

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 08, June 1858 by Various

Whence it appears that in the smallest particle of matter there is a world of creatures, living beings, animals, entelechies, souls.

From Religion and Science From Galileo to Bergson by Hardwick, John Charlton

But in order to distinguish those which have only perception from those which have also sentiment and memory, he will call the latter souls, the former monads or entelechies.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 08, June 1858 by Various