1. ENTELECHY AND THE PRINCIPLE OF THE CONSERVATION 



OF ENERGY 



a. THE PRINCIPLE 



" Energy " is a measurement and nothing else ; it measures 

 the amount of causality given off or received by a limited 

 system in no other sense than the kilogramme or the pound 

 measures the amount of gravitating matter. The unit of 

 this measurement, the " erg," is of the nature of " work," 

 in the terminology of mechanics. 



" Conservation >: of energy means that there is a 

 something in all truly causal processes, as defined above, 

 which retains its quantity, though it may change in its 

 character 1 from body to body, or rather from place to 

 place. So far the principle of conservation is purely 

 aprioristic ; it becomes empirical as soon as its application 

 to the special realms of natural sciences begins. Only 

 mechanics must be regarded as an exceptional field of 

 knowledge in this respect, for, as ontology teaches, the 

 principles of pure rational mechanics, and among these the 

 general equations of motion containing the principle of the 

 conservation of energy in its mechanical form, are aprioristic 

 throughout. It is almost unconsciously for this reason 



1 I intentionally avoid the term "quality" in this connexion. 



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