Or the proposition may mean, not that a certain end or ideal is desired by humanity, nor that it is realized by humanity, but (3) that humanity ought to desire it.

According to

Let us turn to the hedonistic theory and examine it in the light of the preceding reflections. 2. Pleasure as the Highest Good. the hedonistic theory, pleasure is the highest good or end. Let us take this to mean that all human beings strive after pleasure. By pleasure we may mean positive or active pleasure, or freedom from pain, repose of spirit, peace of mind; sensuous pleasure, or intellectual pleasure; the pleasure of self, or the pleasure of others; momentary pleasure, or the pleasure of a lifetime. Now if the theory maintains that all men strive after pleasures of sense, that these are the highest good, it cannot be upheld. Men do not desire sensuous pleasures in preference to all others. We may say that they desire both kinds of pleasure, and that if any are preferred, it is the so-called higher pleasures rather than the others. With the progress of civilization, the race comes to care more for intellectual and moral pleasures than for the so-called bodily enjoyments. This truth has been recognized by such hedonists as Democritus, Epicurus, Mill, Sidgwick, and others. Again, if the theory means by pleasure the pleasure of the moment, it can be easily refuted. Indeed, perhaps no hedonist, not even Aristippus, ever recommended that we sacrifice the future to the present. It does not require much

experience to discover that certain pleasures are followed by pain, and that a whole life may be wrecked by the pleasure of a moment. "Der Wahn ist kurz, die Reu' ist lang." Rational creatures are able to judge of the future by the past, and will, therefore, be willing to forego a present pleasure and even to accept a present pain for the sake of a more enduring future pleasure.

(1) Let us interpret the theory to mean that men universally strive after pleasure, using the term pleasure in the widest and most favorable sense. Now, if we are to understand by this that every human being consciously sets up as the ideal of his conduct, pleasure or happiness, or freedom from pain, and systematically compares all his acts with this standard, selecting such as tend to produce pleasure and rejecting the opposites, the theory cannot stand. It cannot be proved that all men have clear ideals of life, and that they govern their lives in consistent harmony with them. Much less can it be proved that this ideal is pleasure. We cannot imagine the average man as saying to himself, Does this act agree with my ideal of life; will this mode of conduct be in harmony with my ideal of pleasure?

(2) But perhaps his acts are determined by pleasure after all, though he may not know it until he begins to reflect upon his states of consciousness. That is to say, the hedonistic theory may teach, All human acts are prompted by pleasure; the desire to get pleasure and to avoid pain is the principle

governing all conduct; pleasure is the only motive of action. Stated in this form the problem is a psychological problem, and must be solved by the science of psychology. We shall therefore have to investigate the psychology of action before we can give a satisfactory answer to the question under discussion.

3. The Antecedents of Action. The first question which we shall ask ourselves here is this, What are the psychical antecedents of action, i.e., the states of consciousness leading to an act or movement? What takes place in consciousness before a man acts or moves, in consequence of which he is said to act?1

(1) Sometimes movements occur without being preceded by any conscious states. The movements governing circulation and metabolism are largely reflex or mechanical; they are not under the control of consciousness, and not even accompanied by consciousness. Other reflex movements, like the contraction of the pupil regulating the amount of light received by the retina, likewise belong to this category.2

(2) In other cases reflex movements are followed or accompanied by conscious states. A strong atmospheric concussion may cause a violent shock in my entire nervous system, producing widespread movements, and arising in consciousness as a loud

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1 See the standard works on psychology.

2 See Jodl, Lehrbuch der Psychologie, p. 416.

sound. Here it is not the sensation of sound that produces the movements; nay, what produces the former at the same time produces the latter.

(3) Sometimes movements follow conscious states immediately. Certain psychical states are accompanied or followed by movements in the body over which we have no control, and movements of the body, which we may learn to control. Let us look at some of these.

(a) The perception or thought of certain things may be accompanied or followed by intra-organic changes of all kinds (in the vasomotor, circulatory, respiratory systems, in the digestive apparatus, etc.), as well as by more pronounced physical reactions, such as laughing, weeping, screaming, etc., movements of attack and defence, gestures, exclamations, facial movements, etc. Sometimes, especially in children, the mere sight of a movement leads to imitative movements. In all these cases a fixed path seems to have been formed between certain brain parts and certain muscles, which are transmitted from generation to generation. We might call such movements instinctive.

(b) Often the mere perception or thought of a movement or object is followed by a movement which has been learned, without the intervention of any other psychical element. A person may, upon seeing a piano, begin to play in an almost mechanical way, or grasp at an object before him without really intending to do so. Or his thought

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may be followed by incipient movements of the vocal organs, without his having the slightest knowledge of what is taking place.1 A strong association seems to have been formed, by practice, between certain ideas and certain movements, so that when the former arise in consciousness, the latter immediately follow. Whenever a movement follows immediately upon an idea, the action is called ideo-motor.2

(c) Again, we may have the idea of a movement plus a feeling of pressure toward it. Here the whole soul seems to thrust itself in the direc

tion of a certain movement. This process is attended with pleasurable feelings, which easily change into pain, when the pressure becomes too great, or when the impulse to perform the movement is balked. The physiological condition of the pressure feeling is most likely the energy stored up in the brain cells (which produces the movement) together with the excitations caused in the brain by muscular movements accompanying attention. The sight of a person who has insulted me may arouse in me a strong desire to strike him. I feel that I have to hold myself back, as it were,

1 Steinthal calls attention to the contagious effect of the movements of the Flagellants, Tarantella dancers, etc., in this connection. Motions become contagious. When thousands cry vive l'Empereur, the Republican and Bourbon cannot resist. We can recall no movements without repeating the respective innervations. This explains actions performed by men who fear them, hurling oneself from a tower, etc. Steinthal's Ethik, pp. 330 ff.

2 See Carpenter, Mental Physiology, and others.