Philosophy as Thinking the World According to the Principle of Least Effort

zoophyte is the one to be apperceived — the concept of the animal is the apperceiving idea, which determines the content of the perception through the idea of the sensing and in a certain way nourishing organism.

5. A theoretical task presented to the soul thus appears to us as the apperceptive determination of an idea that has become conscious through perception or reproduction, by means of those ideas which the soul is able to develop from the residues of earlier perceptions as a means of determination. The development of such ideas is therefore the performance demanded of the soul, the execution of which (like the development of each and every representation) is tied to manifold psychological and physiological conditions and requires a definite, even if not numerically quantifiable, expenditure of force. Force is here initially taken in the sense of physiology; the sensations of force or weakness, of relief or burden, of recovery or exhaustion are considered only as accompanying phenomena of consciousness.

6. If the force available to the soul for the development of ideas were infinite, it would certainly be indifferent to it how much of this inexhaustible amount it wasted; at most, only the necessary loss of time would be in question. But since this force is finite, we have to expect that the soul will strive to carry out the processes of apperception as purposefully as possible, i.e., with the relatively least expenditure of force, or with the relatively greatest success.

II.

7. Before we realize this in individual specific circumstances, I would like to recall some reactions of displeasure in the soul, which indicate an aversion