THE DIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 297 



by mere analogy, and there might be very many types of 

 phenomena in Nature which would be unintelligible by this 

 means. 



You all know what an ontological category is. A cate- 

 gory is a constituent of the irreducible conceptual scheme 

 according to which reality becomes the object of human 

 consciousness. Whilst Aristotle and the medieval logicians 

 regarded categories as the unchangeable characteristics of 

 absolute objectivity, Leibnitz, Locke, Hume, and Kant put 

 the conceiving mind in the place of that objectivity, and 

 thus brought the whole question into the subjective sphere. 



Of course we can only say a few words here about 

 the different problems by no means solved to universal 

 satisfaction at the present day which relate to the 

 epistemological nature of categories. 



A category is a certain concept or proposition which is 

 applied in any attempt to understand the Given. It seems 

 to me that there is hardly any doubt with regard to the 

 mere presence of such categories in the human mind. Even 

 Hume and his modern disciples would not deny it, though 

 they see nothing more in the categorical system than the 

 mere effect of a " habit " or an " economy ' of the mind, 

 which may be strengthened by "inheritance." We our- 

 selves do not believe that individual habit or economy 

 would have been able to endow the categories with the 

 character of absolute validity which they undoubtedly 

 possess at least with regard to the subject ; and to admit 

 any kind of " inheritance ' :l with regard to them would seem 

 to us both metaphysical and self-contradictory, for the 

 concept of inheritance is itself a result of categorical 

 conceiving. 



