582 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



laxities are, e.g., those presented by the processes of 

 association, recollection, and apperception. But the 

 inner processes are related in another manner; they 

 are parts in the connection of an inner life. This 

 innermost connection Dilthey terms the " psychical 

 structure." It is the order according to which mental 

 facts of very different kinds are connected to an inner 

 living unity, and this connection is determined by the 

 fact that all mental life is influenced by its environ- 

 ment or milieu, and that it reacts upon the latter in a 

 purposeful manner. The factor of interest comes in 

 which not only leads to judgments of value and appre- 

 ciation, but stimulates also an activity of our will 

 through which we alter our environment or adapt our- 

 selves to it. The mental structure has accordingly a 

 teleological character. Whenever the unity of the soul 

 experiences, through joy or suffering, something that is 

 of value to it, it reacts in attention, selection, and 

 mental labour, seeking the means to pursue its own 

 ends. It is only through continued experience that 

 the individual person learns what is to him of abiding 

 value. The principal work of life, in this respect, is to 

 arrive, through manifold illusions, at a knowledge of 

 that which is truly real and valuable. And through 

 a recognition of the valuable things in life a third 

 connection is established that of practical activity in 

 society, with its various manifestations of law, economy, 

 administration, and the conquest of nature. All this 

 points to a development of the inner life. 



But not only has the individual inner life a struc- 

 ture ; this is likewise the case with society. Social 



