The free student idea

its unified contents [1913c]

Hans Reichenbach

pp. 108-123

in: Maria Reichenbach, Robert S. Cohen (eds), Selected writings 1909–1953, Berlin, Springer, 1978

Abstract

That a cultural movement requires fifteen years from the time of its origin to develop and clarify its philosophical foundations does not tell in any way against the value of that movement. On the contrary, that action resting upon certain definite values precedes a clear recognition of these values, that an ideal clearly and distinctly enters the consciousness only long after the person acting under the influence of the emotion to which it gives rise has begun to attempt to realize by means of his actions his vaguely divined rather than clearly acknowledged end, is a frequently observed phenomenon. It is not clear, rational knowledge that gives an act its moral value, but rather the motive for it, independent of the intellectual processes which accompany the action. Yet that does not mean that a clear formulation of one's own volitional decision is unnecessary. On the contrary, a person undergoing progressive development will endeavour to determine clearly and explicitly the precise nature of the goal of all his laborious efforts, which so often are repaid only with ingratitude. He will make this endeavour because he wishes his action to be consistent, because he wants all his activities to conform to his one great ideal, because nothing but the clear recognition of his own ultimate end gives him the proper strength to fight for it.