The Motivating Force of Human activity

A study of the nature of man reveals that there are two levels of the natural human
desires.
Firstly, those desires (known an instincts) which result from mans nature as an animal,
e.g. feeling, sex, pugnacity, etc. Their characteristics are as follows.
a. They are common to man and the animals below him in the scale of evolution.
b. They have an internal biological compulsion of their own on account of which the
animal is compelled to seek their satisfaction,
c. Their satisfaction is accompanied by a special kind of pleasure or relief.
d. Their satisfaction enables the animal to maintain the health and growth of its
body and to preserve its life and race.

Secondly, those desires which result from man's nature as a human being. Those are
as follows:
a.
b.
c.
d.

The desire for an ideal.

The desire for moral action.
The desire for knowledge.
The desire for aesthetic creation of art.

Their characteristics are as follows:

1. They are the special privileges of man not shared by others animals.
A fundamental difference between an animal and a human being is that while
animal only knows, feels and thinks, a man not only knows feels and thinks but,
while he does so, he also an animal is only conscious, man is self-conscious. It is
this fact that creates a difference between the nature of the animal and of the
human being. The desired that are peculiar to man are the desires of his selfconsciousness or self.
2. There is no biological compulsion attached to them. They are free desires
belonging exclusively to the psychological plane, as the course of their
satisfaction is not biologically or instinctively fixed.
3. The satisfaction of each of them yields a special kind of pleasure which at its best
and highest is far superior in quality and intensity to the pleasure derived from
the satisfaction of the instinctive desires.
4. They are pursued and satisfied at their best and highest for their own sake and
not for any ulterior motive.
5. Their object is the search-for beauty. For what an ideal but an idea to which a
person ascribes the highest is beauty or perfection known to him? And what is

moral action or goodness but the expression of beauty in ones deeds and what
is the desire for knowledge if not a desire for truth which we love and admire and
which is, therefore, an aspect of beauty? And what is art but the expression of
beauty through a medium?
Is there out of these desires in the human being a single desire that controls
and dominates all his other desires and motivates all his activities?

The answer to this question has to be given in the affirmative. The reason is that
the human personality which consists of a number of confliction g desires tends
to become a completely unified whole and this is impossible unless there is on
desire in the human being which is powerful enough to control and dominate all
the rest.
The question arises as to what that desire is. Various answers have been given
to this question, and all these answers in spite of their variety have one thing in
common, that ruling desire of man has its source in his animal nature and must
be traced either to one instinct or to a combination of all his instincts.
But the only answer to the above question that appears to be satisfactory is to
say that the ruling desire of man is the desire for an ideal. Mans desire for an
ideal dominates all his desires on the purely psychological level. For whenever
the pursuit of these for their own sake does not serve the ideal-and this happens
always when the ideal is wrong-it is twisted, consciously or unconsciously,. To
make it serve the ideal. The reason is that man attributes to his ideal all the
beauty that he desires. This explains why there is a different moral law, a
different philosophy, different view and use of science and a different art for
every ideal.
That is not all. Mans desire for an ideal dominates and controls all his desires on
the biological level as well. The animal cannot check the biological compulsion of
its instincts. But in the human being no instinct can have its satisfaction without
the sanction of the ideal and it can have its satisfaction only up to the extent to
which this sanction is given and no more when the ideal of an individual
demands the continuation of his life., he exerts himself to the utmost for the
proper satisfaction of his instincts but when the demands of the ideal are
otherwise, he ignores his instincts and even becomes ready to sacrifice his life.
This explains the innumerable instances that come to our notice of men willingly
surprising their animal instincts, undergoing extreme hardships and privation,
endangering their lives, dying on the scaffold or bleeding to death on the battlefield for the sake of their ideals.
Thus virtually man has only one desire and that is the desire for an ideal. If
we accept this view all the facts of human nature, nay, all the facts of existence
can be easily explained. In any case this view of his nature explains the facts of

existence far more satisfactorily than any other view of the nature of man. It
alters our existing theories of Politics, Ethics, Economics, Education, Art,
Philosophy, Religion, Psychology, Biology, Physics, the Unconscious Mind,
Reason , Intuition, Prophet hood, History, Culture, Civilization, Social and
Cultural Changes, Wars and Revolutions.
If this conclusion is true, I believe it is, we are called upon to answer the
following questions:
1. If ideals determine the activities of men, what is it that determines their
ideals?
2. The purpose of our instinctive and amoral desires springing from
biological compulsion is to force us to act for the preservation of our life
and race. What is the purpose of the urge for ideals in the nature of
man?
3. What is the relation of this urge to the economic conditions of a
society?
4. How can the human urge for ideals be properly satisfied? Are all ideals
equally satisfactory? If not, what are the qualities of the ideals equally
satisfactory to the nature of man?
5. Does the ideal change in the life of the individual and of society? If so
what is the change? In what direction does the change take place?
How does the change find expression at various stages of the life of
the growing individual and of evolving human society? What is the
ultimate destination of these changes in the life of the individual and
society? What is the past history of ideals? What is their future course,
in other words, the destination of ideological evolution?
6. What is the explanation of the variety of ideals and ideologies of
individuals and groups and of their mutual hostilities? How can these
hostilities be brought to an end?
In answering these question we shall have to change our whole
attitude towards Politics, Law, Art, Education, Science, Philosophy and
Religion, and we shall have to revise our explanations of Physics,
Biology, Psychology, (Individual and Social), the nature of the
Unconscious Mind, Reason, Intuition, Perception ,Prophet hood,
History, Civilization, Socio-cultural changes, Wars, and Revolutions. In
other words, if the view that the urge for ideals is the motivating force
of human activity is really true, it is the seed of an all-pervading
intellectual revolution.