Samuel Alexander Quotes

• In the perception of a tree we can distinguish the act of experiencing, or perceiving, from the thing experienced, or perceived.

  Samuel Alexander

  Tree, Perception

  45 Copy quote

• An expectation is a future object, recognised as belonging to me.

  Samuel Alexander

  Expectations, Objects, Belonging

  7 Copy quote

• Hence, in desiring, the more the enjoyment is delayed, the more fancy begins to weave about the object images of future fruition, and to clothe the desired object with properties calculated to inflame the impulse.

  Samuel Alexander

  Fruition, Fancy, Impulse

  8 Copy quote

• The perceptive act is a reaction of the mind upon the object of which it is the perception.

  Samuel Alexander

  Perception, Mind, Reactions

  4 Copy quote

• Psychology is the science of the act of experiencing, and deals with the whole system of such acts as they make up mental life.

  Samuel Alexander

  Psychology, Deals, Whole

  15 Copy quote

• Such being the nature of mental life, the business of psychology is primarily to describe in detail the various forms which attention or conation assumes upon the different levels of that life.

  Samuel Alexander

  Psychology, Details, Different

  4 Copy quote

• Both expectations and memories are more than mere images founded on previous experience.

  Samuel Alexander

  Memories, Expectations, Good Memories

  7 Copy quote

• Mental life is indeed practical through and through. It begins in practice and it ends in practice.

  Samuel Alexander

  Practice, Life Is, Ends

  4 Copy quote

• Curiosity begins as an act of tearing to pieces or analysis.

  Samuel Alexander

  Curiosity, Analysis, Pieces

  8 Copy quote

• Thus the same object may supply a practical perception to one person and a speculative one to another, or the same person may perceive it partly practically and partly speculatively.

  Samuel Alexander

  Perception, May, Perceive

  4 Copy quote

• The mental act of sensation which issues in reflex movement is so simple as to defy analysis.

  Samuel Alexander

  Simple, Issues, Analysis

  7 Copy quote

• What is the meaning of the togetherness of the perceiving mind, in that peculiar modification of perceiving which makes it perceive not a star but a tree, and the tree itself, is a problem for philosophy

  Samuel Alexander

  Stars, Philosophy, Tree

  8 Copy quote

• It is convenient to distinguish the two kinds of experience which have thus been described, the experienc-ing and the experienc-ed, by technical words.

  Samuel Alexander

  Swag, Two, Kind

  4 Copy quote

• But though cognition is not an element of mental action, nor even in any real sense of the word an aspect of it, the distinction of cognition and conation has if properly defined a definite value.

  Samuel Alexander

  Real, Elements, Cognition

  26 Copy quote

• For psychological purposes the most important differences in conation are those in virtue of which the object is revealed as sensed or perceived or imaged or remembered or thought.

  Samuel Alexander

  Differences, Important, Purpose

  4 Copy quote

• You can mark in desire the rising of the tide, as the appetite more and more invades the personality, appealing, as it does, not merely to the sensory side of the self, but to its ideal components as well.

  Samuel Alexander

  Self, Personality, Desire

  6 Copy quote

• ... when demand is being destroyed by expensive oil just as expensive oil is incentivising increased production - it should come as no surprise that at some point the markets would react.

  Samuel Alexander

  Oil, Demand, Surprise

  4 Copy quote

• The thing of which the act of perception is the perception is experienced as something not mental.

  Samuel Alexander

  Perception

  4 Copy quote

• An object is not first imagined or thought about and then expected or willed, but in being actively expected it is imagined as future and in being willed it is thought.

  Samuel Alexander

  Firsts, Expected, Objects

  4 Copy quote

• It is more difficult to designate this form of conation on its practical side by a satisfactory name.

  Samuel Alexander

  Names, Sides, Individualism

  4 Copy quote

• We cannot therefore say that mental acts contain a cognitive as well as a conative element.

  Samuel Alexander

  Elements, Mental Health, Wells

  7 Copy quote

• The interval between a cold expectation and a warm desire may be filled by expectations of varying degrees of warmth or by desires of varying degrees of coldness.

  Samuel Alexander

  Expectations, Desire, Degrees

  9 Copy quote

• The sensory acts are accordingly distinguished by their objects.

  Samuel Alexander

  Distinguished, Objects, Sensory

  7 Copy quote

• It may be added, to prevent misunderstanding, that when I speak of contemplated objects in this last phrase as objects of contemplation, the act of contemplation itself is of course an enjoyment.

  Samuel Alexander

  Phrases, May, Lasts

  8 Copy quote

• Desire then is the invasion of the whole self by the wish, which, as it invades, sets going more and more of the psychical processes; but at the same time, so long as it remains desire, does not succeed in getting possession of the self.

  Samuel Alexander

  Self, Long, Wish

  6 Copy quote

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