NEW LIGHT ON THE NOTION OF ENTELECHEIA: TWO WAYS OF HAVING SOUL IN THE GENERATION OF ANIMALS

Abstract

The philosophical relevance of Aristotle’s distinction between having soul in dunamis and having soul in energeia, which is unique to the Generation of Animals, has not been properly appreciated. In this paper, I show how this distinction is important in two ways. First, only the mode of having soul in dunamis is adequate to articulate the peculiar way in which embryos have the soul-principle. Second, this distinction also casts light on Aristotle’s coinage of the word entelecheia: since there is more than one way of having a principle, it is fitting to coin a word to capture the complete mode of having a principle.