Chapter VIII 



Translation of the chapter on "The Unconscious in Instinct," 

 from Von Hartmann's "Philosophy of the Unconscious." 



VON HARTMANN'S chapter on instinct is as follows :— 

 Instinct is action taken in pursuance of a purpose, 

 but without conscious perception of what the purpose is. ^ 



A purposive action, with consciousness of the purpose, 

 and where the course taken is the result of deliberation, 

 is not said to be instinctive ; nor yet, again, is blind, 

 aimless action, such as outbreaks of fury on the part of 

 offended or otherwise enraged animals. I see no occasion 

 for disturbing the commonly received definition of instinct 

 as given above ; for those who think they can refer all 

 the so-called ordinary instincts of animals to conscious 

 deliberation ipso facto deny that there is such a thing as 

 instinct at all, and should strike the word out of their 

 vocabulary. But of this more hereafter. 



Assuming, then, the existence of instinctive action as 

 above defined, it can be explained as — 



I. A mere necessary consequence of bodily organisation.^ 



II. A mechanism of brain or mind contrived by nature. 



III. The outcome of an unconscious activity of mind. 

 In neither of the two first cases is there any scope for 



the idea of purpose ; in the third, purpose must be present 

 immediately before the action. In the two first cases, 



^ " Instinct ist zweckmassiges Handeln ohne Bewusstsein des 

 Zwecks." — Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., Berlin, 1871, p. 70. 



' " 1. Eine blosse Folge der korperlichen Organisation. 



" 2. Ein von der Natur eingerichteter Gehirn- oder Geistes- 

 mechanismus. 



" 3. Eine Folge unbewusster Geistesthatigkeit." — Philosophy of 

 the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 70. 



92 



