398 Appendix 



are predetermined but only the point towards which it 

 tends. It is a "disposable" energy to be applied at will 

 to this or that act so long as it leads to the desired end. 

 Therefore it can be represented at the same time quite 

 indefinitely by any of the infinite number of arrows 

 which fill the entire volume of a cone and converge at 

 its apex. 



The reflex movement admits therefore of but a single 

 solution. On the other hand the affective tendency 

 admits of an indefinitely large number of solutions so 

 long as none of the possible movements has been per- 

 formed by chance and given rise to a choice; or when 

 there are numerous equivalent paths to the goal. 



This possibility of many solutions constitutes exactly 

 the "unforeseen/' the "antimechanical" behavior depend- 

 ent on the affectivity or will, in contrast to the predeter- 

 mined mechanical behavior of reflex movements or of 

 any such complex combinations of reflex movements as 

 certain instincts exhibit. 



Finally it is this fundamental property of the affective 

 tendency of constituting in some degree a force grav- 

 itating toward that environment or those particular en- 

 vironmental relations which permit the reactivation of 

 certain mnemonic accumulations forming this very ten- 

 dency, which lends that environment or those environ- 

 mental relations the appearance of a vis a fronte or 

 "ultimate cause" differing very essentially from the vis 

 a tergo or "actual cause" which alone is operative in 

 inorganic nature. 49 



The organism, writes Jennings, "seems to work to- 

 ward a definite purpose. In other words, the final result 



49 See W. James, Principles of Psychology, I. pp. 7 f. London, 

 Macmillan, 1901. 



