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

restlessly to and fro; and since neither of them is definitively completed, the soul has no fixed point upon which it can direct its concentrating forces, and it must waste all developed force without result. — With certain modifications, this also applies to doubt and unclearness. ⁴⁾

10. The given examples will suffice to illuminate, so to speak, the affective interest of the soul in the expenditure of force. That, in general, feeling indicates the waste of force more precisely through displeasure than—as is now to be expected—the saving of force through pleasure, is based on the same circumstances which make us less conscious of the benefit of normal organic functions than the danger of their disturbances.

Our next task will be to observe the operation of the principle of the least expenditure of force within the life of ideas itself.

III.

11. An ingenious recent writer finds the reason why, in his opinion, so extraordinarily much force is uselessly wasted in the intellectual labor of humanity lies in the inclination of people to systematize.⁵⁾ According to this, this inclination could appear as an unpurposeful striving of more developed thinking. However, the unfavorable judgment of "useless" waste is based on the comparison of the immeasurable sum of expended force with the small result of true insight gained; it is therefore guided by a standard that lies outside the psychological (or physiological) conditions under which the soul performs its achievements at all.

12. If one looks at the inclination to systematize from the latter point of view, it becomes apparent precisely that a great saving of force is introduced in every system as a system. For in systematization, an organization of the masses of ideas takes place, in that