172 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



Maxwell's mythical demon. But its power is more closely 

 defined as checking action, when action would mean mere 

 dissipation of energy, and releasing the check when neces- 

 sary, and thus setting free the stored-up energy of the system 

 to produce the effects, such as we see in the organic world. 

 This relaxing action of Entelechy is non-energetic; it is 

 not the removal of some mechanical obstacle, as such 

 removal would involve some expenditure of energy, however 

 small. The releasing action of Entelechy is entirely an 

 action sui generis, just as the suspending action is. Driesch 

 considers that this assumed action of Entelechy is the only 

 possible way in which the causal relation between the 

 mechanical and the non-mechanical world can be made 

 intelligible without sacrificing the fact that organic life 

 is limited by matter.^ Entelechy is obviously little more 

 than another name for life; life being conceived as a real 

 agent, a real operative factor inside the physico-chemical 

 system which we call the body, and with a real power of 

 action upon it. But as Entelechy is expressly a non- 

 mechanical, non-energetic agent, the mystery of the action 

 of this non-mechanical agent on the mechanical physical 

 body remains entirely unexplained. I fail to see how the 

 concept of Entelechy takes us much further than the fable 

 of Maxwell's demon does. Something like selection, the 

 suspension of action and its relaxation, may probably take 

 place. But the difficulty remains of conceiving how this 

 is brought about and operates. The introduction of the 

 concept of Entelechy does not really help us. We have 

 still to see whether there is anything in the physico-chemical 

 situation which throws any light on the mystery, and 

 whether it is possible to avoid the appearance on the scene 

 of a deus ex machina, such as Entelechy undoubtedly is. 

 I shall therefore proceed to inquire what light the concept 

 of Holism, as it has been expounded in previous chapters, 

 throws on this problem of the nature of ''life," and of its 

 action on the physico-chemical system which constitutes its 

 body in any living organism. It is unnecessary to point 



* Problem of Indruiduality , pp. 38-40. 



