Entelechy

Quick meaning: Entelechy is a noun meaning (Aristotelian metaphysics) The complete realisation and final form of some potential concept or function; the conditions under which a potential thing becomes actualized.

Meaning

(Aristotelian metaphysics) The complete realisation and final form of some potential concept or function; the conditions under which a potential thing becomes actualized.

More Meanings

1. (chiefly philosophy) A particular type of motivation, need for self-determination, and inner strength directing life and growth to become all one is capable of being; the need to actualize one's beliefs; having both a personal vision and the ability to actualize that vision from within.

Example Sentences

But while these forces of chance work both in organic and in inorganic nature, there is an additional principle in organic (living) nature: an organizing principle or entelechie.

[Pages 114–115] [H]e [Aristotle] tells us expressly, that that which we call the rational soul is […] 'separable from the body,' […] 'because it is not the entelech of any body.' […] [page 500] Wickedness is the form and entelech of all the wicked spirits: it is the difference of a name, rather than any proper difference of natures that is between the devil and wicked men.

Aristotleians assumed that rest is the natural state of a body in the terrestrial sphere. If something moves, then this unnatural change in its state requires explanation. Something must be pushing on it, or its motions must derive from some internal teleological "drive" within it – a sort of simple consciousness motivating it. These internal drives were called "entelechies," and Aristotleians held that the entire universe is imbued with entelechies.

Act, as we have already emphasized, is also called by Aristotle an entelechy. […] [A]ct and entelechy bespeak something fulfilled, actualized perfection, or the actualized. The soul, hence, insofar as it is essence or form of the body, is the act and entelechy of the body; and in general all forms of sensible substances are act and entelechy. God, we will see, will be pure entelechy (and just as the other movent Intelligences of the celestial spheres).

Word Forms

• entelechies
• entelech
• entelechia
• entelechie

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include entelech, entelechie, entelechia, ingression, diaphane, ideate.

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