ABSTRACT
No man can act in terms of the image of himself as a totally impotent being. On any attempt to do so, determinism degenerates into fatalism. We cannot dispose of the issue with a “What will be, will be.” The latter may well be the case, but, if this is so, it is only, in part, because of what Man will do (including, if this happens, because he adopts a fatalistic attitude and does nothing), not despite what he will do. Now, the class Man includes the psychologist who adopts the image of Man as an impotent being; this psychologist, like everyone else, cannot live by this image. He may try to apply it to everyone else, but he cannot apply it to himself as a basis of action. He thus professes a faith in an order of law that applies to everyone else, but, implicitly at least, he reserves to himself a special order of law. He knows that he can intervene in events, but he claims that no one else can—and this in the name of science!
