THE INDIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 209 



very different meanings in such a scientific view : it firstly 

 would be used in the simple sense of a property, such 

 as warmth or redness, but secondly, there would be 

 qualities with regard to " bodiness," so to speak, and this 

 second class of qualities would relate to the problems of 

 materiality, especially to the problem of continuity or 

 discontinuity, which is almost wholly neglected by common 

 energetics. 



As a complete qualitative science of the Inorganic, as 

 sketched here, does not exist, it is enough to have 

 mentioned its possible existence. We pass on to a more 

 commonly known scientific point of view. 



The Epistemological Character of Universal Mechanics 



It is very difficult to introduce in a really legitimate 

 way the possibility of so-called mechanical physics, that is, 

 the interpretation of nature as a pure mechanical system, 

 and the reduction of all quality in nature to mere constella- 

 tion of elements. 



Mechanical physics has been called a " metaphysical 

 hypothesis," i.e. an assumption which relates to something 

 absolute, and might some day prove to be true ; but such a 

 view without further explanation is not compatible with 

 an idealistic philosophy. Others have called the theories 

 of mechanical physics " fictions >: or " pictures," adequate 

 to describe by analogy the relations of natural phenomena 

 with regard to their quantity only, but possessing no 

 value beyond that of mere " economy of thinking," which 

 might even be reached better in some other way. It 

 was this point of view in particular that led science to 



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