THE INDIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 197 



lies the contrast between inorganic and vital becoming : 

 organic systems may acquire a higher degree of diversity 

 of distribution without reference to other than their own 

 energetical agents. But the agents of organic systems 

 are not energetical agents exclusively : one of their agents 

 is entelechy. 



& BUT THE ROLE OF ENTELECHY AGREES WITH A CERTAIN 

 GENERAL OXTOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE 



Therefore our principle, in its most general, strictly 

 ontological form, can be shown not to be contradicted or 

 exceeded by vital facts otherwise it would not be a 

 strictly ontological principle ; nay, otherwise the principle 

 of univocal determination would be violated. The principle 

 of univocal determination postulates that nothing happens 

 but what is related in only one way to the rest of the 

 Given. Formulated with special reference to the origin of 

 diversities of any kind, the principle would demand that 

 any increase with regard to any kind of diversity must 

 be referable in but one way to pre-existing diversities, 

 corresponding to the increase that is studied ; in other 

 words, that every newly originating singularity is referable 

 to a pre-existing singularity. 



Our analysis taught us that a certain general ontological 

 principle of becoming diverse is exceeded by vital facts 

 if expressed in limited inorganic terms, but that entelechy 

 plays a part in vital facts. But entdecliy is an intensive 

 manifoldness, embracing a real system of pre-existing 

 diversities in itself: thence it follows that by our argument 

 the principle of univocality is as well observed as ever, 



