Activity 6.3

In this chapter, James opens up and admits, “the free-willists believe the appearance to be a reality [and] I myself hold with the free-willists.” (p. 93) This is perhaps, his most candid statement about the subject, as James often dances around “hot topics”, leaving the reader to wonder about his views. Another great remark that James makes, “to think, in short, is the secret of the will, just as it is the secret of memory.” (p. 91) I enjoy this statement because it demonstrates that although we have inhibitions we can and should think before we act upon them. Similarly, Robert Richardson summarizes James views by explaining that to will is to believe, and belief and action are the same. Our actions demonstrate our will, which in turn resemble what we believe. This sheds light on James’s opinion about the will; that it’s an observable behavior, which reveals the inward man.  

James continues in his talk by going into detail about the will or voluntarily action. In fact, he claims that there are two types of will, which include impulsions and inhibitions. The impulsive will is when inhibitions have no time to arrive, ideas discharge into action rapidly. The inhibition will is broken into two types. Inhibition by repression, in which the “inhibited idea and the inhibiting idea the impulsive idea and that negates it, remain along with each other in consciousness, producing a certain inward train or tension there.” (p. 93-94) Next is inhibition by substitution, “the inhibiting idea supersedes altogether the idea for which it inhibits, and the latter quickly vanishes from the field.” (p. 94) This was rather vague, until James explained that the teacher’s response to the students’ diverted attention by redirection would substitute for the distraction. I’ve experienced students’ attention being diverted and attempted to repress and substitute their attention. I have found that some students respond to repressed inhibition but the majority of students were still distracted. Whereas, substituting students’ attention seems to pull in the majority of the students and they forgot about the distraction.