Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/204

 CHAPTER IX

VOLUNTARY ACTION

WHAT do we mean by voluntary action? To say that it is action directed or controlled by the will is no answer ; for the question only recurs in a different form what is the will? Voluntary action may be defined, somewhat tech nically, as the intelligent reaction of the organism to stimuli a definition which, while it involves all the essential elements of the voluntary process, requires much explana tion.

Two fundamentally important truths about life need to be clearly conceived in order to secure a satisfactory idea of the function of will.

i. The first is the responsiveness of the living being to its surroundings. The organism is continually played upon by numerous influences and answers by responses from within. All action is reaction. One does not act in vacuo, but always with respect to some situation. From the simple reflexes up to the most complicated series of intelligent actions, activity always has reference to some factor or factors of the environment. The life-process in one of its most important aspects consists of a series of reactions to stimuli. The process seems to follow a certain rhythm, periods of comparative quiescence and activity following one another with a general regularity; but response to en vironing conditions never wholly ceases in a living being. The man who is in a profound slumber is not absolutely out of touch with his surroundings, unless he is sleeping the sleep of death.

Furthermore, when the organism is stimulated and reacts,

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