ABSTRACT
An ethical theory that rested on the older psychological outlook has to revise itself in the light of the newer lessons of psychology. It has to learn that introspective data on values, while definitely data, are not indubitable last words. Psychology herself is in the throes of rapid development and is grappling in many forms with the theoretical issue of her own individual-centeredness. There is one logical objection that is sometimes raised to the whole psychological procedure of challenging a man’s conscious values in terms of his real values; because of its prevalence in the past, it should be faced at this point. It is the argument that there can be no other “real” values apart from the values that appear in consciousness. The idea of fundamental psychological needs is correspondingly more complex. It implies some kind of force or operative organization in human beings—the dynamic element traditionally embodied in the drive concept.
