THE INDIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 221 



clearly by an inelastic body moving with the velocity v and 

 entering during its motion into an elastic ball. It will 

 move into this ball for a certain time with decreasing 

 velocity, come to rest for a moment, and then move in the 

 opposite direction with increasing velocity again : let this 

 process be stopped at the moment when the inelastic body 

 has traversed say one-third of the path into the elastic 

 mass. There is no contradiction to energetics in such an 

 event, provided, of course, that after the suspension has ceased 

 the mechanical and energetic events continue their course from 

 the point where it was 'broken} 



So I think that even in mechanics proper we have the 

 possibility of formulating in a strict logical sense what is 

 done by entelechy. 2 



Entelechy, ~by its very nature, may suspend move- 

 ment, transforming kinetic energy into potential energy, 

 and it may set free suspended movement as circumstances 

 require. 



Of course, as we saw with regard to general energetics, 

 entelechy can only be regarded as able to set free those 

 potentials which it has made " potentials ' by its own 

 suspending action, but not potentials that owe their 

 existence to any inorganic cause. This important feature 

 would lead us to a discussion of the continuity of suspension 



1 Our hypothesis, of course, implies that a movement like that of a 

 pendulum, which changes its direction periodically, passing through states 

 of mere potential energy at the point of change, may be suspended in this 

 point of change, in which there is no movement. This case, of course, is 

 more simple than ours, and would not charge entelechy with an actual 

 stopping of kinetic energy. But our more general hypothesis seems to me 

 to be legitimate as well. 



2 A similar view, with regard to "psycho-physical" interaction, has 

 been urged by Wentscher and others; but as a rule "suspending" and 

 " Auslosung" have not been distinguished clearly enough. 



