Sunday, May 8, 2016

Psyche, Will, Reason

Since Aristotle, Psychology--the study of the Psyche = the Soul = animating principle--has been the study of human behavior.  And, since him, the main constituents of behavior, in one guise or another, have been Will and Reason, i. e. motion and its guidance.  Now, for centuries, the former is conceived as an attribute of an Individual, thereby entailing that the latter is, in some respect, impersonal, and, often, anti-personal.  However, nascent in each of the models of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Freud, though never fully developed, is a non-Individual concept of Will--Will to Live, Dionysius, and Id = It, respectively.  Such a concept becomes clear in the premise of a Species-Principle, e. g. a Will to Evolve, one implication of which is that the animating principle of an Individual is fundamentally non-Individual, thereby mooting the traditional opposition of Will and Reason.

No comments:

Post a Comment