The diseases of the will / by Th. Ribot.

  • Ribot, Th. (Théodule), 1839-1916.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The diseases of the will / by Th. Ribot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tion of which concerns psychology at least as much as physiology, and in spite of disagreements in detail that we have neglected, especially the uncertainties regard- ing the function of the cerebellum, we may say with Charlton Bastian that, “if since Hume’s time we have not learned in any full sense of the term ‘the means by which the motion of our bodies follows upon the com- mand of our will, ’ we have at least learned something as to the parts chiefly concerned, and thus as to the paths traversed by volitional stimuli.”* 2) In examining the question on its psychological side, volitional co-ordination assumes so many forms and is susceptible of so many gradations that only its principal stages can be noticed. It would be natural to begin with the lowest; but I think it useful, for the sake of clearness, to follow the inverse order. The most perfect co-ordination is that of the high- est wills, of the great men of action, whatever be the order of their activity: Caesar, or Michael Angelo, or St. Vincent de Paul. It may be summed up in a few words : unity, stability, power. The exterior unity of their life is in the unity of their aim, always pursued, creating according to circumstances new co-ordina- tions and adaptations. But this outer unity is itself only the expression of an interior unity, that of their character. It is because they remain the same that their end remains the same. Their fundamental ele- ment is a mighty, inextinguishable passion which en- lists their ideas in its service. This passion is them- selves ; it is the psychic expression of their constitu- tion as nature has made it. So all that lies outside of this co-ordination, how it remains in the shade, ineffica- cious, sterile, forgotten, like a parasitic vegetation ! *Loc. cit.