THE INDIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 187 



being also, of course, a formation in the sense that ferments 

 definitively become by this very process what they actually 

 are. 



In the formation or activation of ferments we hypotheti- 

 cally see the fundamental role played by entelechy. Our 

 theory of the mere suspending action of entelechy, of course, 

 forbids us to regard entelechy as really creating catalytic 

 materials. We think it right to assume that on the basis 

 of the chemical system actually present in the organism 

 an indefinite though not strictly infinite variety of reactions 

 regarding the production of ferments is possible. It is this 

 sum of possible reactions that entelechy takes part in, 

 suspending and relaxing suspension according to its purposes 

 of regulation. 



Conclusions 



We now have said, it seems to me, all that can be said 

 at present about the relations of entelechy to the true 

 second principle of energetics, which deals with diversities 

 of intensities and the coupling of them, and which is 

 aprioristic in its foundations. This principle is fully observed 

 in life processes, and because it is observed we see that 

 life depends on inorganic processes. Indeed, to some 

 extent there cannot be any contradiction between the 

 second principle and the doctrine of entelechy on account 

 of the partly aprioristic character of the former. In this 

 sense we can say that the principle was bound to hold 

 and that it was only the special form of reconciling the 

 doctrine of entelechy with it that was the problem. 



Our problem then was not to state whether the true 



