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The Motivating Force of Human activity

A study of the nature of man reveals that there are two levels of the natural human

desires.

Firstly, those desires (known an instincts) which result from mans nature as an animal,

e.g. feeling, sex, pugnacity, etc. Their characteristics are as follows.

a. They are common to man and the animals below him in the scale of evolution.

b. They have an internal biological compulsion of their own on account of which the

animal is compelled to seek their satisfaction,

c. Their satisfaction is accompanied by a special kind of pleasure or relief.

d. Their satisfaction enables the animal to maintain the health and growth of its

body and to preserve its life and race.

Secondly, those desires which result from man's nature as a human being. Those are

as follows:

a. The desire for an ideal.

b. The desire for moral action.

c. The desire for knowledge.

d. The desire for aesthetic creation of art.

Their characteristics are as follows:

1. They are the special privileges of man not shared by others animals.

A fundamental difference between an animal and a human being is that while

animal only knows, feels and thinks, a man not only knows feels and thinks but,

while he does so, he also an animal is only conscious, man is self-conscious. It is

this fact that creates a difference between the nature of the animal and of the

human being. The desired that are peculiar to man are the desires of his self-

consciousness or self.

2. There is no biological compulsion attached to them. They are free desires

belonging exclusively to the psychological plane, as the course of their

satisfaction is not biologically or instinctively fixed.3. The satisfaction of each of them yields a special kind of pleasure which at its best

and highest is far superior in quality and intensity to the pleasurederived from

the satisfaction of the instinctive desires.

4. They are pursued and satisfied at their best and highest for their own sake and

not for any ulterior motive.

5. Their object is the search-for beauty. For what an ideal but an idea to which a

person ascribes the highest is beauty or perfection known to him? And what is

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moral action or goodness but the expression of beauty in ones deeds and what

is the desire for knowledge if not a desire for truth which we love and admire and

which is, therefore, an aspect of beauty? And what is art but the expression of

beauty through a medium?

Is there out of these desires in the human being a single desire that controls

and dominates all his other desires and motivates all his activities?

The answer to this question has to be given in the affirmative. The reason is that

the human personality which consists of a number of confliction g desires tends

to become a completely unified whole and this is impossible unless there is on

desire in the human being which is powerful enough to control and dominate all

the rest.

The question arises as to what that desire is. Various answers have been given

to this question, and all these answers in spite of their variety have one thing in

common, that ruling desire of man has its source in his animal nature and must

be traced either to one instinct or to a combination of all his instincts.

But the only answer to the above question that appears to be satisfactory is to

say that the ruling desire of man is the desire for an ideal. Mans desire for an

ideal dominates all his desires on the purely psychological level. For whenever

the pursuit of these for their own sake does not serve the ideal-and this happens

always when the ideal is wrong-it is twisted, consciously or unconsciously,. To

make it serve the ideal. The reason is that man attributes to his ideal all the

beauty that he desires. This explains why there is a different moral law, a

different philosophy, different view and use of science and a different art forevery ideal.

That is not all. Mans desire for an ideal dominates and controls allhis desires on

the biological level as well. The animal cannot check the biological compulsion of

its instincts. But in the human being no instinct can have its satisfaction without

the sanction of the ideal and it can have its satisfaction only up to the extent to

which this sanction is given and no more when the ideal of an individual

demands the continuation of his life., he exerts himself to the utmost for the

proper satisfaction of his instincts but when the demands of the ideal are

otherwise, he ignores his instincts and even becomes ready to sacrifice his life.This explains the innumerable instances that come to our notice of men willingly

surprising their animal instincts, undergoing extreme hardships and privation,

endangering their lives, dying on the scaffold or bleeding to death on the battle-

field for the sake of their ideals.

Thus virtually man has only one desire and that is the desire for an ideal. If

we accept this view all the facts of human nature, nay, all the facts of existence

can be easily explained. In any case this view of his nature explains the facts of

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existence far more satisfactorily than any other view of the nature of man. It

alters our existing theories of Politics, Ethics, Economics, Education, Art,

Philosophy, Religion, Psychology, Biology, Physics, the Unconscious Mind,

Reason , Intuition, Prophet hood, History, Culture, Civilization, Social and

Cultural Changes, Wars and Revolutions.

If this conclusion is true, I believe it is, we are called upon to answer the

following questions:1. If ideals determine the activities of men, what is it that determines their

ideals?

2. The purpose of our instinctive and amoral desires springing from

biological compulsion is to force us to act for the preservation of our life

and race. What is the purpose of the urge for ideals in the nature of

man?

3. What is the relation of this urge to the economic conditions of a

society?

4. How can the human urge for ideals be properly satisfied? Are all ideals

equally satisfactory? If not, what are the qualities of the ideals equallysatisfactory to the nature of man?

5. Does the ideal change in the life of the individual and of society? If so

what is the change? In what direction does the change take place?

How does the change find expression at various stages of the life of

the growing individual and of evolving human society? What is the

ultimate destination of these changes in the life of the individual and

society? What is the past history of ideals? What is their future course,

in other words, the destination of ideological evolution?

6. What is the explanation of the variety of ideals and ideologies of

individuals and groups and of their mutual hostilities? How can these

hostilities be brought to an end?

In answering these question we shall have to change our whole

attitude towards Politics, Law, Art, Education, Science, Philosophy and

Religion, and we shall have to revise our explanations of Physics,

Biology, Psychology, (Individual and Social), the nature of the

Unconscious Mind, Reason, Intuition, Perception ,Prophet hood,

History, Civilization, Socio-cultural changes, Wars, and Revolutions. In

other words, if the view that the urge for ideals is the motivating force

of human activity is really true, it is the seed of an all-pervadingintellectual revolution.