entelechy

American  

[en-tel-uh-kee] / ɛnˈtɛl ə ki /

noun

plural

entelechies

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

• entelechial adjective

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

For Aristotle the soul is the entelechy of the body—that function or activity which makes a man of it.

From The Approach to Philosophy by Perry, Ralph Barton

The soul, Aristotle defines as the first entelechy of the body.

From A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy by Husik, Isaac

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)

But I, entelechy, form of forms, am I by memory because under everchanging forms.

From Ulysses by Joyce, James