180 THE MECHANISM OF LIFE 



Indetermination in Acting. 



If our earlier summary of the modes of organic action is an 

 accurate one — and we think the reader can easily find that it is 

 so by reference to the literature — then it appears that we can 

 make a series of actions, studied " objectively," such that at the 

 beginning of this series there is determination, and at its end 

 indetermination. Tropistic, decerebrate, reflex, instinctive, 

 automatic, and deliberated sensori-motor activities constitute 

 the main terms of this series. Apparently tropisms, the reflexes 

 of spinal animals, and some reflexes of normal animals, are 

 characterised by determinism, while the movements of the higher 

 animals acting normally display what we cannot but regard as 

 spontaneity of behaviour. Of course, it can always be said that 

 the spontaneity is only apparent, that it must be determined, 

 and that we could show this if we knew all the factors. Now, 

 to say that, merely means that we dogmatise. 



Reflecting on our own behaviour — that is, approaching the 

 problem from the " subjective " side — we seem to find a similar 

 series of terms. Reflexes, instinctive actions, and habitual 

 actions really make up the majority of the things that we do. 

 Many of these activities are inherited ones ; such are all forms of 

 organic functioning, customary modes of locomotion, etc. A 

 great number of other actions have been learned during our 

 individual lifetimes, and are repeated mechanically and without 

 dehberation. Others, again, are conventional in the sense that 

 they are the outcome of obedience to custom and law, or are the 

 responses to what is called " mass suggestion " ; thus, most people 

 " instinctively " like to do the things that the crowd does. Now 

 in all such activities true freedom is either wanting altogether or 

 it is only a minimal factor in our behaviour. In organic func- 

 tioning, reflexes and habitual actions, we do not think about what 

 we are doing — that is, consciousness of our activities is absent 

 or it is dim. Perception is what we have called " pure." In 

 the limit, as the mathematicians say, our behaviour approximates 

 to that of the muscle-nerve preparation, or even towards that of 

 the reaction of the compass needle to the bar magnet. In the 

 latter case there is full and strict determinism, and everything 

 that is occurring in the magnet and magnetic field is being 

 prolonged in the reactions of the compass needle. 



But in actions that are new to us, in doing things that we are 

 learning, such as playing a scale on a piano, swimming for the 



