User:MichaelCza

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"Man has a far greater variety of impulses than any lower animal; and any one of these impulses taken in itself, is as 'blind' as the lowest instinct can be; but owing to man's memory, power of reflection, and power of inference, they come each one to be felt by him after he has once yielded to them and experienced their results, in connection with a foresight of those results.

In this condition an impulse acted out may be said to be acted out in part at least, for the sake of its results.

It is obvious that every instinctive act, in an animal with memory, must cease to be 'blind' after being once repeated, and must be accompanied with foresight of its 'end' just so far as that end may have fallen under the animal's cognizance.

An insect that lays her eggs in a place where she never sees them hatched must always do so 'blindly'; but a hen who has already hatched a brood can hardly be assumed to sit with perfect 'blindness' on her second nest.

Some expectation of consequences must in every case like this be aroused; and this expectation, according as it is that of something desired or of something disliked, must necessarily either re-enforce or inhibit the mere impulse.

The hen's idea of the chickens would probably encourage her to sit a rat's memory on the other hand of a former escape from a trap would neutralize his impulse to take bait from anything "

James believed that humans wielded far more impulses than other creatures. Impulses which, when observed out of their greater context, may have appeared just as automatic as the most basic of animal instincts. However, as man experienced the results of his impulses, and these experiences evoked memories and expectations, those very same impulses became gradually refined.

By this reasoning, William James reaches the conclusion that animal behavior is ultimately expressed as a synthesis of instinct and experience, rather than just blind instinct alone.

James believed that humans wielded a greater variety of inborn impulses than any other animal, and any one of those impulses taken by itself is as much an "instinct" as any impulse possessed by a chicken.

But in humans, instincts never operate by themselves for long.

They soon give rise to memories and are mixed with expectations of consequences so that gradually, as a child grows to adulthood, the instincts are brought within the bounds of a single, unified, responsible personality.

It is plain then that, no matter how well endowed an animal may originally be in the way of instincts, his resultant actions will be much modified if the instincts combine with experience, if in addition to impulses he have memories associations inferences and expectations on any considerable scale.