Well, I was quite perplexed to read that
J.A. Smith's translation of De
Anima renders [entelechy] as "actuality."
That must simply be a grave mistake. My Liddell & Scott does not, either, give the exact word 'entelechy, but it does give "enteinoo" (with omega last), with noting that it's a verb denoting future. Amongst the synonyms listed is Latin intendere.
I'm absolutely an amateur with classical Greek, but what Liddell & Scott gives here accords with how Aristotle, and Peirce, for that matter, use the term.
Perfection of being, which you take up from Peirce, is something never attained to the full. Still, something which is effective, and in that sense real, even if never actual, to the full.
Best,
Kirsti
6.5.2006 kello 15:07, gnusystems kirjoitti:
Wilfred,
I have a smattering of classical Greek, maybe enough to provide you withKirsti Määttänen
a little information.
Aristotle apparently coined the term, and didn't define it, so one has
to figure out its meaning from context. (There is no listing for it in
Liddell and Scott's Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, which is the
only Greek dictionary i have at hand.) J.A. Smith's translation of De
Anima renders it as "actuality."
It is sometimes transliterated "entelechia" and sometimes "entelecheia"
(the latter is closer to the actual Greek), so an Internet search on
either of those spellings will bring up some useful items.
As for Peirce, the term plays a prominent role in his "New Elements"
essay, which you'll find in EP2 and online at Arisbe. Another
illuminating passage is CP 6.356: [[[ It must not be forgotten that
Aristotle was an Asclepiad, that is, that he belonged to a family which
for generation after generation, from prehistoric times, had had their
attention turned to vital phenomena; and he is almost as remarkable for
his capacity as a naturalist as he is for his incapacity in physics and
mathematics. He must have had prominently before his mind the fact that
all eggs are very much alike, and all seeds are very much alike, while
the animals that grow out of the one, the plants that grow out of the
other, are as different as possible. Accordingly, his dunamis is
germinal being, not amounting to existence; while his entelechy is the
perfect thing that ought to grow out of that germ. ]]]
Another term he gives as equivalent to it is "perfection of being" (CP
6.341).
I hope this is of some help, though the more accomplished Peircean and
Aristotelian scholars can probably provide more.
gary F.
}The revelation of the Divine Reality hath everlastingly been identical
with its concealment and its concealment identical with its revelation.
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