CHAPTER II 



IN INDIVIDUAL EVOLUTION THE ESSENTIAL DYNAMO- 

 PSYCHISM PASSES FROM UNCONSCIOUSNESS TO CON- 

 SCIOUSNESS 



UP to this point our demonstration has been rigorously 

 scientific and rests entirely on facts, or on inferences 

 closely following on the facts. In that which follows 

 we shall be obliged, though keeping to the same method, 

 to allow a slightly larger margin for hypothesis. But 

 we must ask the reader to hold judgment in suspense 

 till the whole theory developed in this work has been 

 completed. None of its details should be considered 

 separately or apart from the general synthesis. This 

 synthesis, as we shall see further on, is such that, as a 

 whole, it appeals with all the weight of truth. 



For Schopenhauer and von Hartmann consciousness 

 is inseparable from its representations. Between the 

 conscious, on the one hand, and the will or the uncon- 

 scious on the other, there is, according to them, an abyss 

 which cannot be rilled; there is an essential differen- 

 tiation. 



We desire to establish on the contrary: 



1 . That there is no such abyss between the conscious 



and the unconscious, for, in the individual, they 

 constantly interpenetrate and mutually condition 

 each other. 



2. That there is an uninterrupted transition from 



unconsciousness to consciousness ; and that the 

 primitive unconsciousness tends more and more 

 to become conscious by an undefined and 

 uninterrupted evolution. 



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