Page:Philosophical Review Volume 24.djvu/188

172 object or class of objects evokes instinctive and emotional reactions very often, some sort of an habitual attitude will be formed—in other words a rudimentary sentiment. A tramp cat may succeed a few times in calling forth from us a caress or a bit of food—mere passing expressions of tender emotion—and before we are aware of it, tender emotion toward the animal has become habitual, and it has established itself as a household pet. In other words, it has become the object of a sentiment. Now suppose that later we discover that the cat is a cruel and wanton slaughterer of birds who have made their nests upon our grounds, and towards whom we have also formed more or less of an attachment. A conflict between sentiments now ensues, and explicit valuation of ends emerges.

3. By the time that a stage of sufficient abstraction is reached so that the objects of different sentiments have become classified, the values or ends of each will have been given names. The values attached to objects of sentiments may be classified into two types:

(a) The first type is that in which the values are the objects that are the direct ends of sentiments grown up in consequence of the habitual instinctive reaction towards these objects. Such values are: food, drink, sex, enemies, children, long life, etc. Objects of these classes, it will be observed, seem to constitute the only values which the most primitive religions endeavor to conserve and increase.

(b) A second type of values are objects not themselves the direct ends of instincts, but believed to be connected in some way with the attainment of these ends. The two most important instances are economic and religious values.

Perhaps in man there are no objects to which the acquisitive instinct is innately attached, contrary to the case of some animals. But the acquisitive instinct powerfully reinforces the demand of other instincts for objects, and effects the accumulation of objects desired by other instincts. The sentiment which fosters the accumulation of capital probably always involves the acquisitive, constructive and self instincts, and fear in the refined form of prudence. In the case of many individuals the