Affective Tendencies 377 



thesia, which is itself a resultant, a combination of vital 

 operations." 18 



Nor does it in the least prevent affective tendencies 

 from keeping all the fundamental properties which 

 they owe to their mnemonic visceral origin, of which 

 the most important are first the possession of a "diffuse" 

 seat, and second that they are eminently "subjective." 



For every stationary physiological system in equilib- 

 rium with regard to its environment permeates the 

 whole organism and consequently also all that part of 

 the brain in which this organism is reflected. Accord- 

 ingly, in contrast to the mnemonic sense-accumulations 

 each of which to all appearances has a seat distinctly 

 localized at a single point or in a single center of the 

 cortex of the brain, we have every reason to conclude 

 that each affective tendency is made up of an infinitely 

 large number of different elementary mnemonic accumu- 

 lations, deposited respectively in every point of the body 

 and in every corresponding point in the brain. 



To this mnemonic physiological origin of the affec- 

 tive tendencies is also due their eminently "subjective" 

 character; for the organism is equipped potentially with 

 this or that "idiosyncratic" affective tendency, with this 

 or that "appetite," according to the various environ- 

 ments or conditions in which the species and the in- 

 dividual were placed for a longer or shorter time in 

 the past, in other words according to their individual 

 history. 



Hence the subjectivity and infinite variety manifest 

 in the needs, the appetites and desires and consequently 

 in everything that furnishes an object of "affective 

 evaluation." 



18 Ribot, Psych, des sent., p. 10. 



