21 Feb. 1815

Didacologia

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Ch. Art & Science Division

Thelematology or thelematognosy has pathematology for its basis. It is by the eventual expectation of pleasure or pain that in every case the will, and thereby the agency, internal only, or internal and external together, are determined. It is by the idea of pleasure or of exemption from pain, considered as about to result from the proposed act, that the volition in pursuance of which the act is performed, and consequently the act itself is produced.

In the character of ends and in the character of means in that double character it is that pleasures and pains or their respective negatives are continually presenting themselves, not pain itself, but its negative, i.e. exemption from pain is the end; but in the character of a means, pain itself operates, as well as its negative - pain itself as well as pleasure.

What dynamics is to somatology, the practical branch of thelematology, or the art of giving direction to volition, and thereby to action, is to psychognosy or psychology - it may be termed psychological dynamics.

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