The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2)James, William
Philosophy
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
Of course this is not the only way in which we learn to subordinate our
lower selves to our higher. A direct ethical judgment unquestionably
also plays its part, and last, not least, we apply to our own persons
judgments originally called forth by the acts of others. It is one
of the strangest laws of our nature that many things which we are
well satisfied with in ourselves disgust us when seen in others.
With another man's bodily 'hoggishness' hardly anyone has any
sympathy;--almost as little with his cupidity, his social vanity and
eagerness, his jealousy, his despotism, and his pride. Left absolutely
to myself I should probably allow all these spontaneous tendencies
to luxuriate in me unchecked, and it would be long before I formed
a distinct notion of the order of their subordination. But having
constantly to pass judgment on my associates, I come ere long to see,
as Herr Horwicz says, my own lusts in the mirror of the lusts of
others, and to _think_ about them in a very different way from that in
which I simply _feel_. Of course, the moral generalities which from
childhood have been instilled into me accelerate enormously the advent
of this reflective judgment on myself.
So it comes to pass that, as aforesaid, men have arranged the various
selves which they may seek in an hierarchical scale according to their
worth. A certain amount of bodily selfishness is required as a basis
for all the other selves. But too much sensuality is despised, or at
best condoned on account of the other qualities of the individual. The
wider material selves are regarded as higher than the immediate body.
He is esteemed a poor creature who is unable to forego a little meat
and drink and warmth and sleep for the sake of getting on in the world.
The social self as a whole, again, ranks higher than the material self
as a whole. We must care more for our honor, our friends, our human
ties, than for a sound skin or wealth. And the spiritual self is so
supremely precious that, rather than lose it, a man ought to be willing
to give up friends and good fame, and property, and life itself.
_In each kind of self, material, social, and spiritual, men distinguish
between the immediate and actual, and the remote and potential,_
between the narrower and the wider view, to the detriment of the former
and advantage of the latter. One must forego a present bodily enjoyment
for the sake of one's general health; one must abandon the dollar in
the hand for the sake of the hundred dollars to come; one must make an
enemy of his present interlocutor if thereby one makes friends of a
more valued circle; one must go without learning and grace, and wit,
the better to compass one's soul's salvation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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