Definition of entelechy in English:
entelechy
nounPlural entelechies ɪnˈtɛləkiɛnˈtɛləkiənˈtɛləki
mass nounPhilosophy 1The realization of potential.
Example sentencesExamples
- Leaving much of this material unattended to, I shall restrict myself to the themes that have occupied my attention in the previous sections, namely, entelechy, the transcendentals, especially beauty, and desire.
- 1.1 The supposed vital principle that guides the development and functioning of an organism or other system or organization.
such self-organization required a special biological force—entelechy
count noun an entelechy generating a work of art from within
Example sentencesExamples
- The true freedom possible in theology requires a significant degree of prior bondage; the substance of this discipline does not materialize simply out of our own entelechy.
- His working definition is that psych is the ‘first entelechy of a natural organic body’.
- It is Aristotle's idea of entelechy, applied not to biology but to our human community.
- The entelechy of a caterpillar is to grow into a butterfly.
- Radionics is concerned with healing of the whole man, with the health pattern or entelechy of the individual.
- 1.2count noun The soul.
Example sentencesExamples
- This is in keeping with the British emergentists' view of emergence as midway between ‘mechanistic’ reductionism and vitalism of a sort which posited entelechies, substances embodying life-governing principles.
- Each twin formed a unitary entelechy, a single living organism made of psyche and soma, still rotating in opposite directions to each other.
Origin
Late Middle English: via late Latin from Greek entelekheia (used by Aristotle), from en- 'within' + telos 'end, perfection' + ekhein 'be in a certain state'.