The Theory of Psychical Dispositions

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905. Excerpt: ... Another peculiarity of the mental series is that its course depends on many factors, intrinsic and extrinsic. It does not proceed evenly, mechanically, but in a somewhat capricious manner. Its direction is likely to be changed at any time so as to take a course totally different from that which was expected or intended. An impression from the outside, an idea voluntarily or involuntarily recalled, may interrupt the train of thought which one had begun and substitute another in its place. It is impossible to determine the line which our thoughts will follow even for a comparatively short time. The mental series depends largely on psychical dispositions. These form a permanent connection between the mental states; they explain their reappearance and the influence of one on the other; and they are important factors in the course which consciousness follows. 2. Psychical Dispositions In The Mind Series Theory. Knowledge of the Existence of Psychical Dispositions. If the mind is nothing but its successive states, we could, first of all, question the possibility of its knowing itself as a series. We believe with J. Ward that this paradox, as Stuart Mill himself calls it, is not possible, although Bain takes the contrary view.1 If the series of mental states cannot be aware of itself as a series, it would follow that it cannot know the existence of dispositions. For the dispositions connect the various units of the series, and they explain the memory of the past states which constitute it. Let us, however, briefly examine the question on its own merits. What conditions are necessary in order to know the existence of psychical dispositions? We must in the first place be aware of a change, of something that passes away. If the actual state of consciousness remains...