Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- CHAP. I ON CERTAIN ACQUIRED HABITS
- CHAP. II CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS KNOWERS—THE LAW AND GRACE
- CHAP. III APPLICATION OF FOREGOING CHAPTERS TO CERTAIN HABITS ACQUIRED AFTER BIRTH WHICH ARE COMMONLY CONSIDERED INSTINCTIVE
- CHAP. IV APPLICATION OF THE FOREGOING PRINCIPLES TO ACTIONS AND HABITS ACQUIRED BEFORE BIRTH
- CHAP. V PERSONAL IDENTITY
- CHAP. VI PERSONAL IDENTITY—(continued)
- CHAP. VII OUR SUBORDINATE PERSONALITIES
- CHAP. VIII APPLICATION OF THE FOREGOING CHAPTERS — THE ASSIMILATION OF OUTSIDE MATTER
- CHAP. IX ON THE ABEYANCE OF MEMORY
- CHAP. X WHAT WE SHOULD EXPECT TO FIND IF DIFFERENTIATIONS OF STRUCTURE AND INSTINCT ARE MAINLY DUE TO MEMORY
- CHAP. XI INSTINCT AS INHERITED MEMORY
- CHAP. XII INSTINCTS OF NEUTER INSECTS
- CHAP. XIII LAMARCK AND MR. DARWIN
- CHAP. XIV MR. MIVART AND MR. DARWIN
- CHAP. XV CONCLUDING REMARKS
CHAP. III - APPLICATION OF FOREGOING CHAPTERS TO CERTAIN HABITS ACQUIRED AFTER BIRTH WHICH ARE COMMONLY CONSIDERED INSTINCTIVE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- CHAP. I ON CERTAIN ACQUIRED HABITS
- CHAP. II CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS KNOWERS—THE LAW AND GRACE
- CHAP. III APPLICATION OF FOREGOING CHAPTERS TO CERTAIN HABITS ACQUIRED AFTER BIRTH WHICH ARE COMMONLY CONSIDERED INSTINCTIVE
- CHAP. IV APPLICATION OF THE FOREGOING PRINCIPLES TO ACTIONS AND HABITS ACQUIRED BEFORE BIRTH
- CHAP. V PERSONAL IDENTITY
- CHAP. VI PERSONAL IDENTITY—(continued)
- CHAP. VII OUR SUBORDINATE PERSONALITIES
- CHAP. VIII APPLICATION OF THE FOREGOING CHAPTERS — THE ASSIMILATION OF OUTSIDE MATTER
- CHAP. IX ON THE ABEYANCE OF MEMORY
- CHAP. X WHAT WE SHOULD EXPECT TO FIND IF DIFFERENTIATIONS OF STRUCTURE AND INSTINCT ARE MAINLY DUE TO MEMORY
- CHAP. XI INSTINCT AS INHERITED MEMORY
- CHAP. XII INSTINCTS OF NEUTER INSECTS
- CHAP. XIII LAMARCK AND MR. DARWIN
- CHAP. XIV MR. MIVART AND MR. DARWIN
- CHAP. XV CONCLUDING REMARKS
Summary
What is true of knowing is also true of willing. The more intensely we will, the less is our will deliberate and capable of being recognised as will at all. So that it is common to hear men declare under certain circumstances that they had no will, but were forced into their own action under stress of passion or temptation. But in the more ordinary actions of life, we observe, as in walking or breathing, that we do not will anything utterly and without remnant of hesitation, till we have lost sight of the fact that we are exercising our will.
The question, therefore, is forced upon us, how far this principle extends, and whether there may not be unheeded examples of its operation which, if we consider them, will land us in rather unexpected conclusions. If it be granted that consciousness of knowledge and of volition vanishes when the knowledge and the volition have become intense and perfect, may it not be possible that many actions which we do without knowing how we do them, and without any conscious exercise of the will—actions which we certainly could not do if we tried to do them, nor refrain from doing if for any reason we wished to do so—are done so easily and so unconsciously owing to excess of knowledge or experience rather than deficiency, we having done them too often, knowing how to do them too well, and having too little hesitation as to the method of procedure, to be capable of following our own action without the utter derangement of such action altogether; or, in other cases, because we have so long settled the question, that we have stowed away the whole apparatus with which we work in corners of our system which we cannot now conveniently reach?
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- Life and Habit , pp. 43 - 58Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009