Psychology: the Motive Powers


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

Dr. McCosh, in his second volume on Psychology, treats of the Motive Powers as distinct from the Cognitive Powers, which were discussed in tho first volume of the series. He regards this division of the human faculties as better and more natural than the more common arrangement of Kant into the faculties of cognition, feeling, and will, the great objection to which is that it leaves out of sight the moral power or conscience. Not that Kant ignores the moral nature, but that he treats it as if it were a phase of the rational faculty — reason having the power to awaken moral susceptibility and to hold it, as it were, to the truth and right action through the will. The motive powers are arranged by Dr. McCosh under three heads, — emotions, conscience, will, — making conscience or the moral faculty one of the leading faculties. Conscience, according to Dr. McCosh, is both a cognitive and a motive power, and so in a sense is superior to all the other faculties. By far the greater part of this book is given to the consideration of the emotions, which are considered in various aspects, and classified and described with great minuteness. The appetences or inclinations, the ruling idea in them, and the causes which excite or repress them, are set forth in methodical order, as also their various complex divisions and characteristics. The last section is devoted to the Will under ten different aspects, and to brief statements with regard to the religious tendency. Dr. McCosh certainly presents us in this treatise with a very compact, lucid, and comprehensive view of the subject under discussion. - Summary by The North American Review (9 hr 17 min)

Chapters

Distinction between the Cognitive and Motive Power 5:04 Read by Tim Rowe
Prefatory Note 2:55 Read by Tim Rowe
Elements involved in Emotions 8:05 Read by Tim Rowe
Book I. The Four Elements or Aspects of Emotion - First Element: Appetences or … 18:01 Read by Tim Rowe
Book I. The Four Elements or Aspects of Emotion - First Element: Appetences or … 19:39 Read by Tim Rowe
Book I. The Four Elements or Aspects of Emotion - First Element: Appetences or … 19:08 Read by Tim Rowe
Book I. The Four Elements or Aspects of Emotion - Second Element or Aspect: The… 19:51 Read by Tim Rowe
Book I. The Four Elements or Aspects of Emotion - Second Element or Aspect: The… 18:54 Read by Tim Rowe
Book I. The Four Elements or Aspects of Emotion - The Third Element or Aspect: … 23:11 Read by Vickii
Book I. The Four Elements or Aspects of Emotion - Fourth Element or Aspect : Th… 20:59 Read by Vickii
Book I. The Four Elements or Aspects of Emotion - Fourth Element or Aspect : Th… 18:22 Read by Vickii
Book II. Classification and Description of the Emotions - Division of the Emoti… 6:31 Read by ShrimpPhish
Book II. Classification and Description of the Emotions - Emotions as directed … 29:04 Read by Vickii
Book II. Classification and Description of the Emotions - Emotions as directed … 32:26 Read by Vickii
Book II. Classification and Description of the Emotions - Emotions as directed … 28:18 Read by Vickii
Book II. Classification and Description of the Emotions - Emotions called forth… 21:55 Read by Vickii
Book II. Classification and Description of the Emotions - Emotions called forth… 31:11 Read by Vickii
Book II. Classification and Description of the Emotions - Emotions called forth… 24:17 Read by Vickii
Book II. Classification and Description of the Emotions - Emotions called forth… 19:58 Read by dc
Book II. Classification and Description of the Emotions - Continuous Emotions P… 24:28 Read by peacead25
Book II. Classification and Description of the Emotions - Continuous Emotions P… 13:51 Read by dc
The Conscience - There is such a Power 13:21 Read by ShrimpPhish
The Conscience - The Conscience as a Cognitive Power 7:00 Read by ShrimpPhish
The Conscience - The Conscience as a Motive Power with Emotions 2:14 Read by ShrimpPhish
The Conscience - What the Conscience reveals 13:29 Read by bookspeakerr
The Conscience - The Conscience in Actual Exercise 26:00 Read by bookspeakerr
The Conscience - Development and Growth of the Conscience 21:49 Read by bookspeakerr
The Will, or Optative Power - The Essential Nature of Will 5:00 Read by Maddi Shinner
The Will, or Optative Power - Various Forms of Voluntary Acts 10:03 Read by dc
The Will, or Optative Power - The Will associating Itself with other Mental Acts 17:12 Read by Tim Rowe
The Will, or Optative Power - The Will as exercised in the Moral Virtues 2:19 Read by Stacey Malcolm
The Will, or Optative Power - Will in the Christian Graces 3:43 Read by Tim Rowe
The Will, or Optative Power - The Will as an Element in Love 5:52 Read by dc
The Will, or Optative Power - The Influence of the Will on Character 4:59 Read by Tim Rowe
The Will, or Optative Power - The Will has Freedom 5:37 Read by Tim Rowe
The Will, or Optative Power - The Will the Seat of Responsibility 4:33 Read by Tim Rowe
The Will, or Optative Power - Ideas given by the Motive Powers 1:51 Read by InTheDesert
The Will, or Optative Power - Conclusion. — Man's Religious Tendencies 6:09 Read by Larry Wilson