entelechy Philos.
(ɛnˈtɛləkɪ)
Also 7 entelechie, entelech; 6 in Gr. form entelecheia; 7–9 in Lat. entelechia.
[ad. Gr. ἐντελέχεια, f. ἐν + τέλει, dat. of τέλ-ος perfection + ἔχ-ειν to have.]
1. In Aristotle's use: The realization or complete expression of some function; the condition in which a potentiality has become an actuality.
| 1603 Florio Montaigne ii. xii. (1632) 304 Aristotle..cal'eth [the soul] Entelechy, or perfection moving of itselfe. 1652 J. Smith Sel. Disc. x. 500 Wickedness is the form and entelech of all the wicked spirits. 1655–60 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 256/1 The Soul is the first Entelechy of a natural organical body, having life potentially. 1837 Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857) I. 43 The Entelechy, or Act, of a moveable body. 1842 Sir W. Hamilton in Reid's Wks. I. 202/2 note, Aristotle defines the soul, the Form or Entelechy of an organized body. 1850 Maurice Mor. & Met. Philos. (ed. 2) 194 Motion is the entelechy (the perfecting power or principle) of the potential as potential. |
2. In various applied senses (apparently due to misconceptions of Aristotle's meaning): a. That which gives perfection to anything; the informing spirit. b. The soul itself, as opposed to the body.
| 1603 Harsnet Pop. Impost. 5 When his Holiness the King of Spaine and Parsons theyr Entelechie were plotting beyond the seas. a 1652 J. Smith Sel. Disc. iv. 114 He seems to make it [the soul] nothing else..but an entelechia or informative thing. 1652 Urquhart Jewel Wks. (1834) 231 The purest parts of the separated entelechises [sic] of blessed saints. 1659 Shirley Honoria & Mam. i. i, Soul..that bright entelecheia Which separates them from beasts. |
3. The name given by Leibnitz to the monads of his system.
| 1877 E. Caird Philos. Kant v. 92 It is better to give the general name of monads or entelechies to those simple substances that have only perception. |