SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—J. 
co 
or 
or 
Monday, August 31. 
MorNING. 
11. Prof. F. Avetinc.—The Psychology of Conation and Volition. 
Present state of the psychology of volition and its causes. Necessity of intro- 
spection in objectively controlled experimental conditions. Distinction between 
voluntary and involuntary actions and thoughts. Concept of conation, and spon- 
taneous application of this notion in a teleological view of nature. Since all concepts 
are derived from experience, the search for conative and volitional relations must be 
made within consciousness itself. Exclusion of the ‘ sense of effort’ as a basis from 
which the concept in question is derived. Immediate experience of self (communi- 
cated to the British Association, Section J, last year) in such a relation. ‘ Conscious- 
ness of Action’ not an abstract concept, but a concrete experienced relation between 
self and its goal in process of attainment. General statement of a principle of conation 
as a tendency to preserve organic integrity. Restatement of the principle as applying 
on the instinctive level. As outcome of perceptual or conceptual desire. Delay of 
conation in choice. Values and motives. Interpretation of the phenomenon 
“consciousness of action’ or alertness as a phenomenon of conation. What, then, is 
volition ? In certain circumstances it is the condition of a release of conation, and 
consists in the adoption by, or identification with, the self of the motive or motives 
for the selection of an alternative. This appears to be what James means by the 
‘fiat. The concept of freedom, like all others, derived from experience. Its origin 
a question for experimental psychology. The experience from which it is derived is 
the concrete relation self-making motive. 
12. Dr. W. Brown.—Suggestion and Personality. 
AFTERNOON. 
13. Joint Discussion with Section L on Recent Investigation wpon 
Vocational Guidance. (See page 378.) 
Tuesday, September 1. 
Mornine. 
14. Joint Discussion with Section I on The Acquisition of Muscular 
Skill. (See page 351.) 
AFTERNOON. 
15. Prof. C. Burt.—The Unstable Child. 
16. Dr. R. H. Tuoutess.—The Psychology of Economic Value. 
The psychological fact generally recognised to underlie the economic fact of an 
_ article possessing ‘ value’ is that it is the object of ‘ desire.’ More precisely, we must 
say that it is the object of a persistent seeking reaction (the behaviour tendency whose 
conscious concomitant is desire). 
The conditions of formation of market values are obviously highly complex, 
involving the interaction of many individual and social valuations with conditions 
ofsupply, &c. This paper will be concerned only with the simpler preliminary problem 
of the psychological conditions of the resultant price in an isolated exchange. 
This has been traditionally treated by economists as a very simple psychological 
problem in which the buyer and seller have each a definite individual valuation of 
the article exchanged (of which the buyer’s must be the greater), and the price at 
which the exchange takes place lies between these. 
Much in this explanation is unacceptable to the psychologist. He cannot admit 
that the price one is willing to pay for an article is a ‘ measure ’ of desire, for although 
there are intensive differences between desires, desire is essentially unmeasurable. 
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