Philosophy 5: Critical Thinking and Composition

Pierce College

Department of History, Philosophy, & Sociology

Lecture Notes for excerpts from Stein's On the Problem of Empathy

Section 5(k)

"Causality in the Structure of the Individual"     

"Let us try to make this clear by examples of what we having in mind."

"A deliberate decision on a problem put to me continues to direct the course of my action long after the actual decision without my being 'conscious' of this as present in current action."

"Does this mean that an isolated past experience determines my present experience form that time on?  Not at all."

"This volition that remained unfulfilled for a long time has not fallen 'into forgottenness' during this time, has not sunk back into the stream of the past, become 'lived life' in Scheler's terms."

"It has gone out of the mode of actuality over into that of non-actuality, out of activity into passivity."

"Part of the nature of consciousness is that the cogito, the act in which the 'I' lives, is surrounded by a marginal one of background experiences in each moment of experience." 

"These are non-actualities no longer or not yet cogito and therefore not accessible to reflection, either."

"In order to be comprehended, they must first pass through the form of the cogito, which they can do at any time."

"They are still primordially present, even if not actually, and therefore have efficacy."

"The unfulfilled volition is not dead, but continues to live in the background of consciousness until its time comes and it can be realized."

"Then its effect begins."

"Thus it is not something past which affects the present, but something that reaches into the present."

"Therefore, we quite agree that a reproduction of the volition does not set the action in motion."

"And, indeed, we will go even further and say that volition would not be in a position to do this at all."

"A forgotten volition cannot have an effect, and a 'reproduced' volition is not an alive one, either, but a represented one."

"As such it is unable to affect any behavior (as little as in a dark room we can produce the fantasy of a burning lamp to provide the necessary light for reading)."

"It must first be relived, lived through again, in order to be able to have an effect." 

"Future events which 'throw their shadows in advance' are no different." 

"Scheler gives an example of James who, under the influence of an unpleasant logic course he had to teach afternoons, undertook many unnecessary activities the entire day before simply so that he would find no time for the burdensome preparation.  Yet he did not 'think about it.'  ... Rather, it remains 'in the background' and influences our entire conduct." 

"As a non-actual experience not specifically direct, this fear has its object in the expected event.  This is not completely present, but constantly tends toward going over into actual experience, toward pulling the 'I' into itself.  The fear constantly resists giving itself into this cogito.  Its rescue is in other actual experiences that are still blocked in their pure course by that background experience." 

"And of what finally concerns the efficacy of the whole life on every moment of its existence [Daseins] we must say: Everything living into the present can have an effect, irrespective of how far the initiation of the affective experience is from 'now.'" 

"Experiences of early childhood can also endure into my present, even though pushed in the background by the profusion of later events." 

"This can be clearly seen in dispositions toward others persons."

"I do not 'forget' my friends when I am not thinking of them.  They then belong to the unnoticed present horizon of my world.  My love for them is living even when I am not living in it.  It influences my actual feelings and conduct.  Out of love for someone, I can abstain from activities which would cause displeasure without 'being conscious' of this."

"Likewise, animosity against a person, inculcated into me in my childhood, can make an impression on my later life.  This is true even though this animosity is pushed entirely into the background and I do not think of this person at all any more.  Then, when I meet the animosity again, it can go over into actuality and be discharged in an action or else be brought to reflective clarity and so be made ineffectual." 

"On the contrary, what belongs to my past, what is temporarily or permanently forgotten and can only come to givenness to me in the character of representation by reminiscence or by another's account, has no effect on me." 

"A remembered love is not a primordial feeling and cannot influence me.  If I do someone a favor because of a past preference, this inclination is based on a positive opinion of this past preference, not on the represented feeling."   

Section 5(p)

"The Significance of the Foreign Individual's Constitution for the Constitution of Our Own Psych Individual"

"To consider ourselves in inner perception, i.e., to consider our psychic 'I' and its attributes, means to see ourselves as we see another and as he sees us." 

"And, in principle, it is possible for all the interpretations of myself with which I become acquainted to be wrong." 

"It is possible for another to 'judge me more accurately' than I judge myself and give me clarity about myself." 

"This is how empathy and inner perception work hand in hand to give me myself to myself."