The Mind and the Brain: Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le CorpsBinet, Alfred
Philosophy
The Mind and the Brain: Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps
Binet, Alfred
Mind and body
Our minds could not divine the designs of nature, if the laws of
images had nothing in common with the laws of nature. We are thus led
to confront these two orders of laws with each other; but, before
doing so, one more preliminary word is necessary. We have up till now
somewhat limited the problem, in order to understand it. We have
reduced the psychological being to one single function, the
intellectual, and to one single object of research, the truth. This
is, however, an error which has often been committed, which is now
known and catalogued, called intellectualism, or the abuse of
intellectualism. It is committed for this very simple reason, that it
is the intellectual part of our being which best allows itself to be
understood, and, so to speak, intellectualised. But this leaves out of
the question a part of our entire mental being so important and so
eminent, that if this part be suppressed, the intelligence would cease
to work and would have no more utility than a machine without motive
power. Our own motive power is the will, the feeling, or the tendency.
Will is perhaps the most characteristic psychical function, since, as
I have already had occasion to say, nothing analogous to it is met
with in the world of nature. Let us therefore not separate the will
from the intelligence, let us incarnate them one in the other; and,
instead of representing the function of the mind as having for its aim
knowledge, foresight, the combination of means, and self-adaptation,
we shall be much nearer the truth in representing to ourselves a
being who _wills_ to know, _wills_ to foresee, and _wills_ to adapt
himself, for, after all, he _wills_ to live.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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