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

a preferred and especially important complex of ideas is given a central position in consciousness, and the other ideas are grouped around this central idea in peculiar structures. Through such an arrangement of all the ideas encompassed by the theoretical interest of the individual, firstly, an increase in the consciousness of the available stock of ideas and a greater orientation within it is achieved. But then, and especially, all problem-ideas here are solved uniformly, i.e., only one group of ideas—the central idea—was and is used for their apperception, whose reproduction, moreover, becomes ever easier and more self-evident through its favorable position and frequent application. Furthermore, every problem that might arise fits conveniently into a related problem group and, through its relationship to the central idea, immediately finds its apperceptive solution from there.

13. Finally, a system, through its real or supposed completeness, grants at the same time the benefit of rest in the face of all special problems that might still be possible, and through its real or supposed closure, the advantages of a feeling of security, in that every conclusion from the underlying central idea serves to retroactively strengthen it; everything is connected with everything else, and everything carries and supports everything else.

These are all force-saving moments.

IV.

14. The striven-for saving of force can be observed even more clearly in a class of apperceptions whose application rests on an acquisition that the soul has in common with the bodily organism, and which allows us to completely disregard the other special constitution of the concepts used and to consider them only as general mental means of operation, just as is the case with feelings, volitions, and even movements.