Psychologists Should Beware of Superfluous Teleological Principles

Psychologists should rethink themselves before putting down the instinct of self-preservation as the cardinal instinct of an organic being. A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength. Life itself is will to power. Let us beware of superfluous teleological principles, one of which is the instinct ofself-preservation we owe it to Spinoza's inconsistency. Natural philosophy is only a world exposition and world arrangement, according to us, if I may say so, and not a world explanation. But insofar as it is based on belief in the senses, it must be regarded as more,. namely as an explanation. It has eyes and fingers of its own. It has ocular evidence and