THE INDIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 177 



uttering profoundest wisdom in saying that vital pheno- 

 mena, such as restitution, are due to a " disturbance of 

 equilibrium " ! 



The true problem is : " ~by what single acts does the 

 restoration of ' equilibrium ' take place here, especially 

 in those cases in which it is proved that entelechy is at 

 work, and that physico-chemical diversities and potentials 

 of themselves are not able to offer a sufficient explanation 

 of what happens ? ' 



Again : Entelechy not Energy 



Any one who felt able to assume some kind of vital 

 energy would have little difficulty in solving this problem. 

 The " intensity ' of his vital energy would have to come 

 into " catenation " with the intensities of the inorganic 

 energies, either causing them to increase or making them 

 decrease by increasing itself. But hitherto a vital energy 

 has appeared to us to be a simple impossibility, and it 

 becomes even more so at this point. For, though always 

 one and the same "kind" of subsidiary energy, the 

 " entelechian energy ' : of an individual would have to be 

 endowed with variable intensities with regard to one and 

 the same inorganic intensity, in exact correspondence to 

 different states of disturbance of the organism. In other 



An argument often employed by these authors is this : All organic events 

 are the consequence of a disturbance of equilibrium, all inorganic events are 

 the consequence of a disturbance of equilibrium, therefore organic events are 

 inorganic (mechanical). This argument rests upon the "logical" formula: 

 All A are C, all B are C, therefore all A are B ; or in words : All men are 

 bipeds, all birds are bipeds, " therefore " all men are birds. I am sorry to 

 say so, but it is true that this sort of " logic " really has been employed in 

 biology. 



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