ABSTRACT
This chapter treats of the development of mind in its conative aspect, from behaviour which is entirely involuntary, through various degrees of volition up to its fullest manifestation in will. To use the word choice in this connection is, of course, to pass over intermediate stages of development and come to that at which voluntary action is already an established possibility. All kinds of activity that belong to the preconscious level of development, whether reflex or instinctive actions, however complex, are involuntary, and so are all actions that have become so habitual that the peoples do not know that peoples are doing them; but they at once become voluntary. Will also implies concentration of energy upon the conation or series of conations leading to the end proposed. In other words, the selected end must be reinforced by something that will arouse desire in the same direction and with an emotional tone stronger than that attaching to rival desires.
