394 Appendix 



nized aspects in the object desired for the time being, 

 and becomes more intense, threatening again to gain the 

 upper hand. The individual then falls in a state we call 

 ''indecision." When a philosopher discovers by intro- 

 spection that he is in this situation, he will easily realize 

 that both affectivities exist together within him, that they 

 are "flesh of his flesh," and that the slightest and most 

 insignificant physical occurrence is enough to cause either 

 one to gain ascendency over the other. It is clear that 

 he can easily fall a prey to the illusion that nothing at 

 all, any chance breath of wind, is enough to give one the 

 preponderance over the other. This is the subjective 

 illusion of free will which for many centuries has con- 

 stituted the greatest and most difficult problem that philos- 

 ophy has been called upon to solve. 



Finally to come to the consideration of "pleasure" 

 and "pain," it is the merit of the modern psychological 

 school that it has shown the fallacy of Bain's theory that 

 the fundamental fact of animal life is the pursuit of 

 "pleasure," in other words, the search for everything 

 pleasant and the avoidance of everything unpleasant; 

 and on the other hand that it has clearly emphasized that 

 the conditions of pleasure and pain represent only the 

 superficial part of the affective life, "of which the deep 

 element consists in affective tendencies, positive or nega- 

 tive. . . . These are the elementary processes of 

 affective life, of which pleasure and pain represent only 

 the satisfaction or failure." 47 



Since an activation of nervous energy accompanies 

 every "satisfaction" of any affective tendency, and every 

 "disappointment" corresponds to an interruption or ces- 

 sation of this energy, pleasure really corresponds to every 



47 Ribot, Psychol. des sent., p. 2.Probl. de psych, aff., p. 16. 



