The Freudian Wish and Its Place in Ethics

📘 About This Book

Excerpt from The Freudian Wish and Its Place in Ethics The problem of good conduct, both in practice and in ethical theory, ought to receive some clarification, one would suppose, from a science that studies the mind and the will in their actual operation. If in the past psychology has not materially contributed to this problem, it is possibly owing to the incompetence of psychology to tell us much that is either true or useful about the essential nature of mind or will, or of the soul. I believe that such has been the case, and that now for the first time, and largely owing to the insight of Dr. Sigmund Freud, a view of the will has been gained which can be of real service to ethics. In presenting this I shall disregard the current comments on Freud, which have become so familiar, for he deserves neither the furious dispraise nor the frantic worship which have been accorded him. He is a man of genius, simply, more sagacious and more perspicacious than his detractors and far more sane than many of his followers. In my opinion both of these have failed to emphasize that for which Freud is most significant. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

📖 Summary

The Freudian Wish and Its Place in Ethics by Edwin B. Holt, originally published in the early twentieth century and made available for modern readers, offers a fascinating bridge between the emerging science of psychoanalysis and classical philosophical ethics. The central inquiry of the book addresses the problem of good conduct, examining how human behavior, morality, and ethical theory can find genuine clarification through a scientific understanding of the mind and the will in actual operation. Historically, psychology struggled to contribute meaningfully to ethics because previous psychological frameworks lacked true insight into the essential nature of the mind, the will, or the soul. However, the author argues that a profound shift has occurred largely due to the revolutionary insights of Dr. Sigmund Freud. Through psychoanalytic theory, a new and scientifically grounded view of the human will has finally emerged, one that can be of immense, practical service to the study of ethics. Holt proposes to bypass the familiar and superficial commentary surrounding Freud's work to instead directly examine the foundational mechanics of the Freudian wish. By looking closely at what a wish truly is—not merely a passing mental image, but a dynamic, objective course of action that the living organism is set upon achieving—the book re-evaluates how ethical choices are made. The text explores how human desires are structured, how they interact with environmental realities, and how understanding these internal drives can lead to a more coherent, realistic foundation for moral behavior. Rather than treating ethics as a set of abstract, disconnected commandments imposed from the outside, Holt suggests that ethical conduct is deeply intertwined with the natural teleology of the human psyche. Through 230 pages of rigorous philosophical and psychological analysis, the book invites readers to rethink the very roots of moral responsibility, aligning the study of what we ought to do with a scientifically sound understanding of what we naturally desire and strive to accomplish.

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