entelechy
Americannoun
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entelechies
plural
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a realization or actuality as opposed to a potentiality.
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(in vitalist philosophy) a vital agent or force directing growth and life.
noun
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(in the philosophy of Aristotle) actuality as opposed to potentiality
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(in the system of Leibnitz) the soul or principle of perfection of an object or person; a monad or basic constituent
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something that contains or realizes a final cause, esp the vital force thought to direct the life of an organism
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
The soul, Aristotle defines as the first entelechy of the body.
From A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy by Isaac Husik
In particular, he picked out the Aristotelian "entelechy" to stop a gap in the philosophy of his own age.'
From Theodicy Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil by E.M. Huggard
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 Alfred Binet
Form is the actual, the energy, the entelechy which actualises the potential and determines the final compound.
From The Mind and the Brain Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps by Alfred Binet
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 John Charlton Hardwick
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
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