GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL
only our bodily, but our moral characteristics are largely,
if not wholly, determined by our initial bodily inherit*
ance. Nor is the suggestion confined to moral characteristics.
Researches into the intellectual capacities of
identical twins, recently conducted in America, show
striking similarities in the matter of intellectual attainment;
similar weaknesses and proficiencies were evinced
in the same subjects, and closely similar marks obtained in
examinations. While the evidence of similarity in the case
of intellectual characteristics is less striking than the
evidence relating to moral character, it tends to bear out
the determinist's contention that, the more we study a
man's bodily constitution and initial genetical equipment,
the more convincingly does his character appear as a
function of his constitution and equipment The implication
is, of course, that a complete knowledge of
genetics and physiology would show the dependence
to be absolute.
That Human Nature is Psychologically Determined*
Not less formidable than the physiological are the psychological
arguments for determinism. The outlines of the
case for psychological determinism have already been
indicated in Chapter IV in illustration and development
of Aristotle's doctrine of Self-Determinism. 1 Reflecting
upon the conclusions of psychology and psycho-analysis,
we cannot but admit that the evidence which .these sciences
have accumulated has greatly strengthened the selfdeterminist's
case. Modern psychology represents the most
lately evolved faculties of human nature, such as the will,
the reason, and the conscience, as determined by non-
rational forces which 'lie, for the most part, below the
threshold of consciousness, whose genesis we do not know
and whose effect upon consciousness we cannot calculate.
This doctrine in its most extreme form appears in the
teachings of psycho-analysis, which insist that the main-
springs of our nature lie outside the realm of consciousness,
1 See Chapter IV, pp. 111-113.