Humanity’s First Exam1850–1940 ⇄ now

1879 · English · United States

Are We Automata?

William James

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Passage selected for Humanity's First Exam
Ascending still higher we reach the plane of Ethics, where choice reigns notoriously supreme. An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible. To sustain the arguments for the good course and keep them ever before us, to stifle longing for more flowery ways, to keep the foot unflinchingly on the arduous path, these are characteristic ethical energies. But, more than these; for these but deal with the means of compassing interests already felt by the man to be supreme. The ethical energy par excellence has to go farther and choose which interest out of several equally coercive shall become supreme. The issue here is of the utmost pregnancy, for it decides a man's entire career. When he debates, Shall I commit this crime? choose that profession? accept that office, or marry this fortune? -- his choice really lies between one of several equally possible future Selves. What his entire empirical Ego shall become, is fixed by the conduct of this moment. Schopenhauer, who enforces his determinism by the argument that with a given fixed character only one reaction is possible under given circumstances, forgets that, in these critical ethical moments, what consciously seems to be in question is the very complexion of the character. The problem with the man is less what act he shall now choose to do, than what kind of a being he shall now resolve to become.

Are We Automata? · line 385

4 selected passages and classifications

Passage 1

That these eddies are stirred by causes that have no connection with either dominant interests or present impressions seems manifest from the phenomena of dreaming. The chaotic imagery there appears due to the unequal stimulus of nutrition in different localities. But if an accidental variation in nutrition is sufficient to determine the brain's action, what safeguard have we at any time against its random influence? It may of course be reasonably objected that the exceptional state of sleep can afford no proper clue to the brain's operations when awake. But Maury in his classic work, Le Sommeil, has conclusively proved the passage of dreams through "hypnagogic hallucinations" into that meteoric shower of images and suggestions, irrelevant to the main line of thought, the continual presence of which every one who has once had his interest awakened in the subject, will without difficulty recognise in himself. Ordinarily these perish in being born, but if one by chance saunters into the mind, which is related to the dominant pursuit of the moment, presto! it is pounced upon and becomes part of the empirical Ego. The greatest inventions, the most brilliant thoughts often turn up thus accidentally, but may mould for all that the future of the man. Would they have gained this prominence above their peers without the watchful eye of consciousness to recognise their value and emphasise them into permanence?
Cognition, attention, and judgmentHabit and self-commandselection and judgment · advancesScientific or empirical evidenceMeaning, experience, and interpretationEnlarges autonomyIndividualMind and body

James grants accidental physiological origins for ideas, but makes consciousness decisive in recognizing, valuing, and preserving the ideas that become part of a life.

Are We Automata? · line 452

Passage 2

This category might be defined as the mode in which data are brought together for comparison with a view to choice. Both these points, comparison and choice, will be found alike omnipresent in the different stages of its activity. The former has always been recognised; the latter less than it deserves. ... I think we may go farther and add that the powers of cognition, discrimination and comparison which it possesses, exist only for the sake of something beyond themselves, namely, Selection.
Cognition, attention, and judgmentFree will and automatismselection and judgment · advanceseffective will · advancesMetaphysics of mind and lifeMeaning, experience, and interpretationEnlarges autonomyIndividualMind and body

James makes selection and choice a positive, active function of consciousness rather than a by-product of neural sequence.

pp. 8–9, consciousness as comparison and selection

Passage 3

Ascending still higher we reach the plane of Ethics, where choice reigns notoriously supreme. An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible. To sustain the arguments for the good course and keep them ever before us, to stifle longing for more flowery ways, to keep the foot unflinchingly on the arduous path, these are characteristic ethical energies. But, more than these; for these but deal with the means of compassing interests already felt by the man to be supreme. The ethical energy par excellence has to go farther and choose which interest out of several equally coercive shall become supreme. The issue here is of the utmost pregnancy, for it decides a man's entire career. When he debates, Shall I commit this crime? choose that profession? accept that office, or marry this fortune? -- his choice really lies between one of several equally possible future Selves. What his entire empirical Ego shall become, is fixed by the conduct of this moment.
Free will and automatismMoral responsibilityHabit and self-commandeffective will · advancescultivate capacities · advancesCharacter and human developmentDuty and responsibilityEnlarges autonomyIndividualMind and body

This distinct ethical unit presents deliberate choice as forming a self over time, rather than merely selecting an already determined act.

pp. 13–14, ethical choice and future selves

Passage 4

The power of choosing the light name for the case is the true moral energy involved, and all who posit moral ends must agree in the supreme utility of, at least, this kind of selective attention. But this is only one instance of that substitution for the entire phenomenon of one of its partial aspects which is the essence of all reasoned thought as distinguished from mere habitual association. The utility of reasoned thought is too enormous to need demonstration. A reasoning animal can reach its ends by paths on which the light of previous experience has never shone.
Cognition, attention, and judgmentHabit and self-commandMoral responsibilityselection and judgment · advancescalculation is insufficient · advancescultivate capacities · advancesMeaning, experience, and interpretationCharacter and human developmentEnlarges autonomyIndividualMind and body

James joins attention, moral self-command, and reasoning: judgment actively frames what a situation is, rather than following habitual association.

pp. 20–21, selective attention, moral energy, and reason

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