chapter IX 



Remarks upon Von Hartmann's position in regard to instinct. 



UNCERTAIN how far the foregoing chapter is not 

 better left without comment of any kind, I neverthe- 

 less think that some of my readers may be helped by the 

 following extracts from the notes I took while translating. 

 I will give them as they come, without throwing them into 

 connected form. 



Von Hartmann defines instinct as action done with a 

 purpose, but without consciousness of purpose. 



The building of her nest by a bird is an instinctive 

 action ; it is done with a purpose, but it is arbitrary to 

 say that the bird has no knowledge of that purpose. Some 

 hold that birds when they are building their nest know 

 as well that they mean to bring up a family in it as a 

 young married couple do when they build themselves a 

 house. This is the conclusion which would be come to by 

 a plain person on a prima facie view of the facts, and 

 Von Hartmann shows no reason for modifying it. 



A better definition of instinct would be that it is in- 

 herited knowledge in respect of certain facts, and of the 

 most suitable manner in which to deal with them. 



Von Hartmann speaks of " a mechanism of brain or 

 mind " contrived by nature, and again of " a psychical 

 organisation," as though it were something distinct from 

 a physical organisation. 



We qan conceive of such a thing as mechanism of brain, 



137 



