Philos. 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 … calleth it [the soul] Entelechy, or perfection moving of it selfe.
a. 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. 202–3, 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 & Mammon, 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.
