[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.He says that when the attention isturned inward upon self as a Personality, "we are putting forth towards ourselves the kind ofexercise that properly accompanies our contemplation of other persons.We are accustomed toscrutinize the actions and conduct of those about us, to set a higher value upon one man thanupon another, by comparing the two; to pity one in distress; to feel complacency towards aparticular individual; to congratulate a man on some good fortune that it pleases us to see himgain; to admire greatness or excellence as displayed by any of our fellows.All these exercisesGet any book for free on: www.Abika.com THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY247are intrinsically social, like Love and Resentment; an isolated individual could never attain tothem, nor exercise them.By what means, then, through what fiction [!] can we turn round andplay them off upon self? Or how comes it that we obtain any satisfaction by putting self in theplace of the other party? Perhaps the simplest form of the reflected act is that expressed by Self-worth and Self-estimation, based and begun upon observation of the ways and conduct of ourfellow-beings.We soon make comparisons among the individuals about us; we see that one isstronger and does more work than another, and, in consequence perhaps, receives more pay.Wesee one putting forth perhaps more kindness than another, and in consequence receiving morelove.We see some individuals surpassing the rest in astonishing feats, and drawing after themthe gaze and admiration of a crowd.We acquire a series of fixed associations towards persons sosituated; favorable in the case of the superior, and unfavorable to the inferior.To the strong andlaborious man we attach an estimate of greater reward, and feel that to be in his place would be ahappier lot than falls to others.Desiring, as we do, from the primary motives of our being, topossess good things, and observing these to come by a man's superior exertions, we feel a respectfor such exertion and a wish that it might be ours.We know that we also put forth exertions forour share of good things; and on witnessing others, we are apt to be reminded of ourselves and tomake comparisons with ourselves, which comparisons derive their interest from the substantialconsequences.Having thus once learned to look at other persons as performing labors, greater orless, and as realizing fruits to accord; being, moreover, in all respects like our fellows, - we findit an exercise neither difficult nor unmeaning to contemplate self as doing work and receiving thereward.As we decide between one man and another, - which is worthier,.so we decidebetween self and all other men; being, however, in this decision under the bias of our owndesires." A couple of pages farther on we read: "By the terms Self-complacency, Self-gratulation, is indicated a positive enjoyment in dwelling upon our own merits and belongings.As in other modes, so here, the starting point is the contemplation of excellence or pleasingqualities in another person, accompanied more or less with fondness or love." Self-pity is alsoregarded by Professor Bain, in this place, as an emotion diverted to ourselves from a moreimmediate object, "in a manner that we may term fictitious and unreal.Still, as we can view selfin the light of another person, we can feel towards it the emotion of pity called forth by others inour situation."This account of Professor Bain's is, it will be observed a good specimen of the old-fashionedmode of explaining the several emotions as rapid calculations of results, and the transfer offeeling from one object to another, associated by contiguity or similarity with the first.Zoological evolutionism, which came up since Professor Bain first wrote, has made us see, onthe contrary, that many emotions must be primitively aroused by special objects.None are moreworthy of being ranked primitive than the self-gratulation and humiliation attendant on our ownsuccesses and failures in the main functions of life.We need no borrowed reflection for thesefeelings.Professor Bain's account applied to but that small fraction of our self-feeling whichreflective criticism can add to, or subtract from, the total mass.- Lotze has some pages on themodifications of our self-regard by universal judgments, in Microcosmus, book V.chap.V.§ 5.[16] "Also nur dadurch, dass ich ein Mannigfaltiges gegebener Vorstellungen in einemBewusstsein verbinden kann, ist es möglich dass ich die Identität des Bewusstseins in diesenVorstellungen selbst vorstelle, d.h.die analytische Einheit der Apperception ist nur unter derVoraussetzung irgend einer synthetischen möglich
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]