THE INDIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 169 



the faculty of being measurable, as being equivalent to a 



more or less of actual " work." 



But entdechy lacks all the characteristics of quantity : 



entelechy is order of relation and absolutely nothing else ; 



all the quantities concerned in its manifestation in every 



case being due to means which are used by entelechy, or to 



conditions which cannot be avoided. 



It therefore seems to me that it is not only rather 



imaginative to speak of a vital kind of energy, just as it is 

 rather imaginative to speak of all other sorts of " potential ' 

 energies, but that it is absolutely wrong and contrary to the 

 fundamental principles of definition and terminology. It is 

 not legitimate to subsume a something under a general 

 concept as one of its species, if this something differs from 

 the general term just in that property which is the most 

 important and essential. Science does better not to classify 

 after the principle " lucus a non lucendo." 



Therefore entelechy is not a kind of energy, but in spite 

 of that it does not disturb the validity of the first principle 

 of energetics. 1 This principle would hold in life, even if 

 an equation of economy were impossible. New subsidiary 

 energies would then have to be created in fact; but these 

 new subsidiary energies would have nothing to do with 

 entelechy and vitalism. Whether they exist or not is a 



1 Short formula of the relation between entelechy and the first principle of 

 energetics : In a given limited system the sura of energy remains 2 (E) = 

 Const., whether entelechies are concerned in the system or not. I do not lay 

 much stress upon the often-quoted fact that so-called "mental work" done 

 by a man has never been found to affect the general economy of the body, 

 including the consumption of energy, though, of course, this fact might seem 

 to be favourable to my views. On the other hand, the fact that, if a person 

 imagines that he is performing movements, the circulation in the brain 

 vessels is increased, allows of no univocal conclusions. 



