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In this book the author considers man in his animal nature as possessing appetites and instincts which act without a guiding power in them or among them. He discusses the We relation of this animal nature to a higher nature, which is fitted to control it, and has, as its own possession, the means--by automatic powers and free-personality--of controlling itself. He argues that there is a whole group of emotions, aspirations and impulses that would seem to be meaningless if man's conscious activity is limited to the duration of his physical life, and there is no Intelligent Being above him who has personal relations to him. He then enumerates the active principles of what he calls the religious nature of man. Topical areas in this book include operations in inorganic nature and plant life that simulate instinct; operations in physiology simulating instinct; higher forms for instinct for the welfare of the individual species; manifestation of higher instinct, instinct for communities of animals; instinct connected with parental relation; higher character of animals; instinct in man as growing out of his appetites; the relation of instinctive principles of action to the rational and moral nature of man, moral instincts, and religious instincts.
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"The writing of this book was first undertaken because I wished to present the conception of Religion. In attempting to make my argument convincing I have found it necessary to deal with questions which did not at first appear to relate to the subject I wished to discuss, and the study of Religion thus appears as a subsidiary part of the broader treatment of Instinct and Reason; the reader will readily perceive, however, that it still remains the most important and most interesting matter considered. It has long seemed to me evident that activities which are so universal in man as are those which express our religious life, cannot fail to be of significance in relation to our biological development, especially as these activities have persisted for so many ages in the human race. I have, therefore, attempted to outline a theory which will account for the existence of religious activities, and which will explain their biological import. In order to present this clearly I have thought it best to make a special study of Instinct, to which the second division of the book is devoted, to show the relation of religious activities to instinctive activities in general. This study of Instinct naturally leads to the study of Impulse in division III, and this turns our thought to a consideration of the nature of moral standards which we all acknowledge to be most closely related to religious activities. In like manner the study of Reason, while natural in connection with the study of Instinct, has also its appropriateness in connection with the consideration of the nature of Religion"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).
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"The book discusses the nature of instinctive behaviour and its accompanying instinctive experience"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).
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