Translation from Von Hartmann 103 



the logical mechanism peculiar to and inseparable from 

 all mind, and find unconscious purpose to be an indispen- 

 sable link in every instinctive action. With this, therefore, 

 the conception of a mental mechanism, dead and pre- 

 destined from without, has disappeared, and has become 

 transformed into the spiritual Ufe inseparable from logic, 

 so that we have reached the sole remaining requirement 

 for the conception of an actual instinct, which proves 

 to be a conscious willing of the means towards an uncon- 

 sciously willed purpose. This conception explains clearly 

 and without violence all the problems which instinct 

 presents to us ; or more truly, all that was problematical 

 about instinct disappears when its true nature has been 

 thus declared. If this work were confined to the considera- 

 tion of instinct alone, the conception of an unconscious 

 activity of mind might excite opposition, inasmuch as 

 it is one with which our educated pubUc is not yet familiar ; 

 but in a work like the present, every chapter of which 

 adduces fresh facts in support of the existence of such 

 an activity and of its remarkable consequences, the 

 novelty of the theory should be taken no farther into 

 consideration. 



Though I so confidently deny that instinct is the simple 

 action of a mechanism which has been contrived once 

 for all, I by no means exclude the supposition that in the 

 constitution of the brain, the ganglia, and the whole 

 body, in respect of morphological as well as molecular- 

 physiological condition, certain predispositions can be 

 established which direct the unconscious intermediaries 



alien Geistern eigenthiimlichen und immanenten Mechanismus der 

 Logik angelangt, und haben die unbewusster Zweckvorstellung bei 

 jeder einzelnen Instincthandlung als unentbehrliches died gefunden ; 

 hiermit hat also der Begriff des todten, ausserlich pradestinirten 

 Geistesmechanismus sich selbst aufgehoben und in das immanente 

 Geistesleben der Logik umgewandelt, und wir sind bei der letzten 

 Moglichkeit angekommen, welche fiir die Auffassung eines wirk- 

 lichen Instincts iibrig bleibt : der Instinct ist bewusstes WoUen des 

 Mittels zu einem unbewusst gewoUten Zweck." — Philosophy of the 

 Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 78. 



