a sense of disparity between the ideal object and the actual state of the agent. This actual state either already contains pain, or the suggested idea induces a pain, as when I am perfectly contented, but the suggestion of a greater happiness renders me uneasy. The tension of desire is felt as the contrast between the pain of want and the pleasure of the idea. The tension itself arises from the resistance which the present or actual state of the agent offers to the tendency of the idea to work itself out into reality. That such a tendency exists, though it is confined within certain limits,2 is attested by many familiar facts. Persons who dwell long enough on the idea of throwing themselves from a height end by actually doing so; long brooding over the idea of an act which may be repugnant to a man's moral sense may in the end lead him to commit the wrong 3" the woman who deliberates is lost;" by dwelling on the idea of a disease persons 1 Whether the phrase a "feeling of tension" is a sufficient description of desire is a difficult psychological question. See on this subject Volkmann's Psychologie, § 143; and on the other side Bradley's Ethical Studies, Essay VII. p. 239; and Mind, vol. xiii. pp. 15-17. Great difficulty is offered by the phenomenon of expectation, which would appear to involve a tension, but yet cannot properly be called desire. So far as I can judge, the case seems to be thus :-Tension is a term very loosely employed. Sometimes a feeling like that of headache may be described as a feeling of tension, when the feeling recalls a physical strain. Sometimes we have a state of mind which to the observer might appear as a tension, but is not felt so by the patient. Simple expectation is of this kind. If I am expecting, say, that it will rain, or the appearance of a class-list, my idea is that of something which is to happen in the future, and the content of this idea need not be incompatible with my present feelings, and suggests no contrast. The person who observes the idea as a mental event may see that it does not agree with the rest of my mind, and may describe the state as one of tension; but the patient feels this not as a tension but as the feeling of pain. When the tension is felt as such the expectation is already becoming desire, as it is perpetually on the point of becoming. Thus expectation as such is not desire, but then neither is mere expectation a feeling of tension. This feeling seems to involve the contrast of pleasure and pain as stated in the text. * See Prof. Bain's Emotions and Will, p. 427 (3rd ed.), where he quotes the well-known lines: "O who can hold a fire in his hand 3 A motive used in Dostoievsky's remarkable psychological study Crime et Châtiment. can put themselves in conditions favourable for its actual appearance. Acts which are done by hypnotic patients at the suggestion of the operator afford other instances. While in any one desire we have this process and feeling of tension, in a conflict of desires there are two incipient motions, each of them resisted by that part of the subject's feelings or present state to which the motive makes appeal. 4. Some further remarks are needed mainly in reference to the terminology of desire. Confusion often arises from the loose application of the name of one element to another. Thus the motive means either the feeling which impels to action or the idea before the mind. But the principal difficulty arises as to the object of desire. The object, in the first place, is never a mere external thing. When I desire a fruit which is before me, I desire not the fruit itself but its enjoyment; when a child desires the moon he wants to possess it. The object of desire seems always to be a state of my mind which in desiring exists as an idea, in the satisfaction as a reality. Herein it differs from the object of knowledge; for waiving any ultimate question, the object of knowledge is not present in the state of knowledge itself, but is outside or beyond it. The idea before my mind in desire is defined as simply that of which the satisfaction is the reality. It does not mean a constructive image of the satisfaction, though in developed desires such image is a part of the idea. The idea is in fact more largely derived from memory. But both idea and satisfaction have a common character, or as it is called technically, content. Hence the satisfaction is desired only so far as the idea has the same character, and conversely my desire is satisfied only so far as the result has the same character as my idea, and this is why desire is so rarely satisfied. On account of their common character both the idea and the satisfaction are described as the object of desire, and again the term end is applied indifferently to both. If we are to distinguish them at all, we might call the idea the purpose, the satisfaction the end. Lastly, since every desire strives to realise its ideal object, the desire itself, as a whole, is distinguished by the common character of purpose and end, which gives the desire its content or character. 5. To return to the main subject. In willing the resistance disappears and the idea passes into actual reality. I do not raise the question whether will is always preceded by desire, still less do I imply that will ensues only after a conflict of desires, or as a choice between objects. Though this is most often the case, it is not so always. There need be no more than one object before the mind. To suppose that in this case there is always present the alternative idea of omitting the action, is to confuse the state of the agent's own mind with the judgment of the observer, who can always say the agent might have done otherwise. In some cases the idea passes into performance immediately; in others the conversion takes place by a process which may be roughly described as bringing the idea nearer and nearer to the feelings, or the actual state of the subject. The gulf between the idea of the object of volition and the present feelings of the agent is bridged over by the discovery of intermediate steps or means which must be adopted in order to the end. As these means are successively discovered they enter into the idea of the end before the mind, and the object thus becomes distributed over them as well. It may even often happen that the means become the object to the exclusion of the ultimate end. When in this process of discovering means, something is reached the idea of which can pass at once into the state of actual feeling, the conditions of willing are complete, and the act ensues, all the parts of the idea before the mind pass into reality, beginning with the ultimate means. Sometimes when the means are found impossible, and the action is abandoned, the end remains in view as the object of a wish; sometimes the actual performance is deferred, and the will takes the form of a mere resolution.1 In this process two things seem to be involved. The 1 See Volkmann, Lehrbuch der Psych., § 147. first is that the idea of the object becomes more vivid: instead of remaining a faint idea it acquires, at least in certain portions, the strength of feeling, that is of that state which is required in order to set going the activity (whether internal or external) which is willed. In the second place, the idea of the object acquires a further detail. The object present to consciousness never can be the whole particularity of the act, but a more or less generalised or ideal form of it. But before the analysis into means takes place, the idea before my mind contains very little detail: in order that it should be willed its content must become adequate to the whole event contemplated. These details are supplied by the means which are the conditions under which the act is to be performed. As they are recognised the idea of the particular act becomes more concrete and individual, though in the process the ultimate results may fade out of sight in comparison with the nearer means. The passage into volition implies both these processes of acquiring greater detail in the content of the idea and greater vividness in the idea itself (at least in some parts of it). Whether the two things are identical I will not inquire, but in both senses it can be said that a little imagination may take a man far away from reality, while a little more brings him back again. It is then the peculiar character of volition that in it the consciousness of its object is transformed into actual possession: the idea of the object entering more and more accurately into the details of reality is transformed so as to combine with the mass of present feelings in the subject, and to issue in the psychical event of volition. Volition is therefore a true creator: it gives reality to something which before was a mere idea. A mere idea is indeed a fact of mind as much as a feeling, and in that sense real; but in volition the idea which at the beginning is discrepant from the mental presentations is transformed into an actual presentation.1 1 In order not to complicate the statement, I have in the above taken II. RIGHT AND PERFECT. 6. Is then the subject of moral judgment always a volition? The question is a double one. Is what is morally judged always a volition? Does it always imply that consciousness of its object by which volition is characterised? The further question whether will is directly or only indirectly judged need not engage us at present, for it does not concern the inquiry at what stage moral judgments begin to emerge. To both the questions stated the answer might seem at first to be negative. Moral judgments seem to be passed on other mental states than volition, and there are some acts which are thought to reveal character and yet cannot be called conscious acts. A consideration of the case will, however, show that what is morally good or bad is always the will. 7. A distinction which will throw light upon these cases may be stated here at the outset. It will be constantly recurring under other forms. Good and bad are terms which have a wide application, and they are not confined to morals, but extend to all objects of nature and art. In general a thing is called good in reference to a particular purpose when it is adapted to fulfil that purpose, or conforms to the type or ideal in question. A good horse is one which has the qualities of a horse in an eminent degree: a good poem is one which effects its artistic purpose whatever that may be a good style is one which is adapted to the subject it describes. We are concerned only with the use of the terms in morals. Now within morals the antithesis of good and bad is used to cover both that of right and wrong and that of perfect and imperfect or high and low. These ideas cannot be precisely defined in this place, but they refer to certain obvious facts. We the common case where the will converts a representation into a presentation. But of course there are cases (comparatively rare) where the object is the idea of an idea, and the will makes the second idea a reality as when I will to bring an idea before my mind. : |