THE INDIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 21 7 



motion ; all other forces are only apparent to it. The 

 principle of the conservation of the " quantity of motion ' 

 (mv) of a given system is its only principle, including of 

 course the conservation of kinetic energy, the only energy 

 kinetic mechanics knows. But whenever nature is regarded 

 as a mechanical system of the dynamical type, it is conceived 

 as a typical arrangement of mass-elements possessing central 

 forces, and in this system all becoming depends on the original 

 state of actual motion and the amount of these forces. There 



ni/ 

 are two kinds of energy the actual form ~v z and the 



Zi 



potential form and all becoming is represented as an increase 

 and decrease of the amount of these two forms correspondingly, 

 their sum total remaining unaltered in each of the three 

 dimensions of space. The potential form of energy is as 

 subsidiary here as any subsidiary energy in the field of 

 qualitative energetics. But, in any case, the sum total of 

 energy existing cannot be imagined changeable; and this 

 principle is valid with regard to each co-ordinate separately. 



The principle of the conservation of the quantity of motion 

 (mv), of course, does not hold in a theory of mechanics 

 that is dynamical : it is contradicted by potential energy. 



What role then could entelechy play in a world of either 

 mechanical type? 



Pure Kinetics Negligible 



As far as I am aware, there is not any kinetic system of 

 mechanics that could claim to be pure. In order to explain 

 the totality of physical phenomena some kinds of " forces >: 

 are always being introduced, at least where it is a question of 



