INTRODUCTORY DISCUSSIONS 151 



dependent on one another, 1 are in the last resort the 

 consequence of entelechian acts. The entelechy that created 

 them all was harmonious in its intensive manifoldness : the 

 extensive structures which are produced by it are therefore 

 harmonious too. In other words, there are many processes 

 in the organism which are of the statical-teleological type, 

 which go on teleologically or purposefully on a fixed machine- 

 like basis ; but entelechy has created this basis, and so 

 statical teleology has its source in dynamical teleology. 



We now see the full meaning of the statement that 

 entelechy is an " intensive manifoldness " realising itself 

 extensively ; in other words, we know what it means to say 

 that a body in nature is a living organism ; we have given a 

 full descriptive definition of this concept. 



CONCLUSIONS AND NEW PROBLEMS 



But how can an " intensive manifoldness " be an elemental 

 factor in nature ? The answer to this question will depend, 

 of course, on what is understood by the expression " elemental 

 factor in nature." In other words, a detailed analysis of 

 this concept will serve to show us the circumstances under 

 which it is legitimate or illegitimate to speak of a factor of 

 nature as elemental. 



Materialistic dogmatism would reply here that the 

 concepts of mechanics or energetics are the only legitimate 

 elementalities of all science but we have nothing to do 

 with dogmatism of any kind. 



The principle of so-called " economics of thinking/' as 

 prevalent nowadays, might say, on the other hand, that 



1 See vol. i. p. 107. 



