ARISTOTLE'S BIOLOGY 



held that the material and moving causes yield 

 no adequate conception of the organism, so 

 biology today inclines to hold that no adequate 

 description of the living organism can be 

 framed in categories of " matter " and 

 " energy." 



Phrases change; and thinking takes a new 

 direction from the new phrase and seems to 

 flow in untried channels. The old phrase be- 

 comes an alien. Few of us today could bring 

 ourselves to accept eo nomine the ^vxy, — the 

 soul or, if one will, the organic life in its 

 ascending scale, — as the entelechy, to wit, 

 " the form or actuality of a natural body 

 having in it the capacity of life." More 

 specifically, the foxy is the " first entelechy," 

 or actuality, standing as knowledge stands to 

 the exercise of knowledge in speculation. 

 This " soul " is the formative principle of the 

 body and the body's end or final cause, even 

 as speculative activity ( to Beupeiv ) is the 

 soul's final end. 



Such statements are not of our time. Yet 

 perhaps they are not so far from our intel- 

 lectual purposes. Do we not think that all the 

 sciences, including those having to do with 

 organisms, contribute to the soul which is life, 



[77] 



