Fran¨ois Latraverse at UQAM (University of Quebec at Montreal), who is in
charge of the preparation of the volume of the new edition of Peirce's work
(Writings of CSP, vol. 7) which will present Peirce's contribution to the
Century Dictionary, sent me the following information about the ENTELECHY
entry several days ago, which I somehow failed to post immediately.
(Fran¨ois is, I believe, preparing at our request a basis for a link to a
list of Peirce's entries but that is not ready yet..). The first text below
has not been previously posted here.
-----------------from Fran¨ois Latraverse----------
As for 'entelechy', there are two texts: (1) the one published in W5 (MS
1167 R), of which the untagged version is the following:
(Gr. entelecheia, word invented by Aristotle, from en telei echon, having
attained the end.) Literally, attainment, realization; opposed to power,
potentiality, and nearly the same as energy or act (actuality). The idea of
entelechy is connected with that of form, the idea of power with that of
matter. Iron is potentially in its ore, which to be made iron must be
worked. When this is done, the iron exists in entelechy. The passage from
power to entelechy takes place by means of change (kinesis). This is the
imperfect energy, the perfected energy is the entelechy. First entelechy is
being in working order, second entelechy is being in action. The soul is
said to be a first entelechy, that is, a thing precisely like a man in every
respect, except that it would not feel, would be a body without a soul; but
a soul once infused is not lost because whenever the man is asleep. This is
the Aristotelian sense, but Cudworth and others have used entelechy and
first entelechy somewhat differently. Cudworth calls his plastic nature or
vital principle the first entelechy, and Leibniz terms a monad an entelechy.
and (2), from the 1889 edition of the CD (untagged) :
Realization: opposed to power or potentiality, and nearly the same as energy
or act (actuality). The only difference is that entelechy implies a more
perfect realization. The idea of entelechy is connected with that of form,
the idea of power with that of matter. Thus, iron is potentially in its ore,
which to be made iron must be worked; when this is done, the iron exists in
entelechy. The development from being in posse or in germ to entelechy takes
place, according to Aristotle, by means of a change, the imperfect action or
energy of which the perfected result is the entelechy. Entelechy is,
however, either first or second. First entelechy is being in working order;
second entelechy is being in action. The soul is said to be the first
entelechy of the body, which seems to imply that it grows out of the body as
its germ; but the idea more insisted upon is that man without the soul would
be but a body, while the soul, once developed, is not lost when the man
sleeps. Cudworth terms his plastic nature (which see, under nature) a first
entelechy, and Leibnitz calls a monad an entelechy.
-----------------
To express this aspect of the mental functions, Aristotle makes use of the
word entelechy. The word is one which explains itself. Frequently, it is
true Aristotle fails to draw any strict line of demarcation between
entelechy and energy; but in theory, at least, the two are definitely
separated from each other, and \textgreek{} represents merely a stage on the
path toward \textgreek{}. Entelechy in short is the realization which
contains the end of a process: the complete expression of some function-the
perfection of some phenolncnon, the last stage in that process from
potentiality to reality which we have already noticed. Soul then is not only
the realization of the body; it is its perfect realization or full
development.
--E. Wallace, Aristotle's Psychology, p. xlii.
---------------
---------------END LATRAVERSE-------
Joe Ransdell
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