ADAPTIVENESS AND PURPOSIVENESS 333 



ence of a clear outlook towards the future, of making plans, 

 of desiring ends, of deliberately willing to realise an idea, 

 of bending a multitude of means, often with some difficulty, 

 towards a definite result, and so on. We cannot think of 

 it without the concept of purpose. It is not merely that 

 we put this finalistic interpretation on our conduct; we 

 know that our purpose actuates our conduct. Among the 

 conditions of our conduct we recognise ideal anticipations 

 as dominant. As Lloyd Morgan puts it, there are psycho- 

 logical factors which we name " prospective significance and 

 interest ". *' Pre-perceptive relationships have been estab- 

 lished and highly developed. And such conscious relation- 

 ships count, really count, every whit as much as any other 

 natural relationship. They are not merely cpiphenomenal 

 phosphorescence; they are real conditions of the course of 

 the process, both mental and bodily." 



We must admit, then, the reality of purposeful self-de- 

 termination. It is not that a psychical entity, called a pur- 

 pose, functions; it is rather that our whole organism bends 

 its bow in a particular direction and that we know this on 

 the experiencing side as our conscious purpose and strengthen 

 it in knowing it. We see, then, that in the human realm 

 of ends the concept of purpose is essential; that in the in- 

 organic domain, considered in itself, it is irrelevant; the 

 question is as to the intermediate realm, and here the diffi- 

 culties of interpretation are great. 



This question of purpose is more or less clear when we 

 are dealing with ourselves, but it becomes much more diffi- 

 cult when we pass to our neighbours. One of our neighbours 

 behaves as we were doing and we credit him with the pur- 

 pose of making a rockery. But it may be that he has some 

 other purpose in view, or it may be that he is simply imitat- 



