The diseases of the will / by Th. Ribot.

Théodule-Armand Ribot

Date:: 1903

Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The diseases of the will / by Th. Ribot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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these differences arise from the character of the indi- vidual, which depends upon his special constitution; there is nothing to be sought for beyond that. We are, then, completely in accord with those who deny that the predominance of one motive is sufficient to explain volition. The preponderating motive is but a part of the cause, and always the least, although the most visible ; and it only has efficacy in so far as it is chosen, that is to say, as it enters as an integral part into the sum of states which constitute the ego at a given moment, and as its tendency to act is added to that group of tendencies which spring from the char- acter, to be consolidated with them. It is then in no wise necessary to make of the ego an entity, or to place it in a transcendental region in order to recognise in it a true causality. It is a fact of experience, very simple, very clear ; the contrary is not comprehensible. Physiologically, this signifies that the voluntary act differs both from the simple reflex, where a single impression is followed by a single contraction, and from more complex forms, where a single impression is followed by a number of contractions; that it is the result of the entire nervous organisation, which itself reflects the nature of the whole organism and reacts in consequence. Psychologically, it signifies that the voluntary act, in its complete form, is not the simple transformation of a state of consciousness into move- ment, but that it supposes the participation of the whole group of conscious or sub-conscious states which constitute the ego at a given moment. We are therefore justified in defining the will to be an individual reaction, and in holding it for that which is the very inmost in us. The ego, although an effect,

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