Samuel Alexander
Samuel Alexander
Samuel Alexander OMwas an Australian-born British philosopher. He was the first Jewish fellow of an Oxbridge college...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth6 January 1859
CountryAustralia
practice life-is ends
Mental life is indeed practical through and through. It begins in practice and it ends in practice.
differences important purpose
For psychological purposes the most important differences in conation are those in virtue of which the object is revealed as sensed or perceived or imaged or remembered or thought.
self long desire
Desire then is the invasion of the whole self by the wish, which, as it invades, sets going more and more of the psychical processes; but at the same time, so long as it remains desire, does not succeed in getting possession of the self.
firsts expected objects
An object is not first imagined or thought about and then expected or willed, but in being actively expected it is imagined as future and in being willed it is thought.
elements mental-health wells
We cannot therefore say that mental acts contain a cognitive as well as a conative element.
simple issues movement
The mental act of sensation which issues in reflex movement is so simple as to defy analysis.
curiosity analysis pieces
Curiosity begins as an act of tearing to pieces or analysis.
self personality desire
You can mark in desire the rising of the tide, as the appetite more and more invades the personality, appealing, as it does, not merely to the sensory side of the self, but to its ideal components as well.
expectations desire may
The interval between a cold expectation and a warm desire may be filled by expectations of varying degrees of warmth or by desires of varying degrees of coldness.
reflection class ideas
But unfortunately Locke treated ideas of reflection as if they were another class of objects of contemplation beside ideas of sensation.
fruition fancy impulse
Hence, in desiring, the more the enjoyment is delayed, the more fancy begins to weave about the object images of future fruition, and to clothe the desired object with properties calculated to inflame the impulse.
perception may perceive
Thus the same object may supply a practical perception to one person and a speculative one to another, or the same person may perceive it partly practically and partly speculatively.
mind perception reactions
The perceptive act is a reaction of the mind upon the object of which it is the perception.
perception
The thing of which the act of perception is the perception is experienced as something not mental.