ON THE MNEMONIC ORIGIN AND NATURE OF 

 AFFECTIVE TENDENCIES. 1 



If we observe the behavior of the various organisms 

 from the unicellular up to man, we see that a large num- 

 ber of their processes, and especially the most important 

 ones, may be regarded as manifestations of a tendency 

 of the organism to maintain or to restore its "stationary" 

 physiological state (to use the term of Ostwald's ener- 

 getics). 



In other words, if we call "affective" that particular 

 class of organic tendencies which appear subjectively in 

 man as "desires" or "appetites" or "needs" and objec- 

 tively in both man and animals as "movements" com- 

 pleted or incipient (except those that have become 

 mechanical in character), then a large number of the 

 principal "affective tendencies" thus defined may be at 

 once reduced to the single fundamental tendency of each 

 organism to preserve its "physiological invariability." 



For instance, we see that hunger, the most fundamen- 

 tal of all affective tendencies, is in reality nothing but 

 the tendency to keep, or restore that qualitative and 

 quantitative condition of the nutritive system of the body 

 which will make possible a continuation of the stationary 



translated for The Monist (July, 1911) by L. G. Robinson 

 from Rivista di Scienza Vol. XI, 3, 1909. 



361 ' 



