Posted on 12/26/2014 8:48:15 AM PST by Salvation
Featured Term selected at random:
ENTELECHY
The internal specifying principle that actively directs a nature to its specific good or end. In scholastic philosophy this is the substantial form. It is the vital principle that guides and co-ordinates all the activities of an organism from within, and for the benefit of the whole. More than mechanical, it is the immanent power that gives purpose and direction to all the operations of every living thing. (Etym. Latin entelechia, accomplishment, actuality, substantial form; from Greek entelecheia.)
All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.
Coolest one of the entire year!
Just under the wire :)
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ENTELECHY IS THE ENGLISH WORD for entelecheia, a combination of two Greek words; “energeia, which means being-at-work, and entelechia, which means being-at-an-end.” Entelecheia translates as “being-at-work-staying-itself”. [*] Additionally it means continuity or persistence and can be thought of as “the transition from potentiality to actuality,”
“Entelecheia means continuing in a state of completeness or being at an end which is of such a nature that it is only possible to be there by means of the continual expenditure of the effort required to stay there.” “It is clearly the transition that motion is, and the actuality that it isn’t.” “We know however that the things Aristotle called actualities are limited in number, and constitute the world in its ordered finitude rather than in its random particularity.”
Aristotle, also never specifically, defined ENTELECHY, yet it is thematic through out his philosophy, according to some scholars.
Excellent find ... and food for a lifetime of eating
Some definition!
**internal specifying principle that actively directs a nature to its specific good or end.**
Hmmm
I confess, that, like Don Quixote, I may be a little touched in the head regarding the idea of entelechy, just as Don Quixote was in his obsession with Knight Errantry.
The idea still sparks an unaccounted for passion in me, I believed that entelechy may have been the most important question which Aristotle was examining, sort of a theory of everything.
I do not have the scholastic background as, I am an artist, to adequately research this subject, however if there are any Philosophy or Classics majors (whom) or is it (who), can guide me to an understanding, I would be very grateful.
GREAT find, Salvation
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