Elmer R. Gates (1859-1923), the son of Jacob and Phoebe Goetz, American scientist and inventor; born near Dayton, Ohio, died in Washington, D.C.
Although a prolific inventor, Gates considered himself to be a psychologist. He applied scientific experiment to introspection and used invention to examine the processes by which the mind discovers new knowledge. This study led him to “psychotaxis,” the integrated hierarchy of sensory discriminations required to create a valid and complete mental representation of a given part of the physical world. Psychotaxis is a major component of “psychurgy,” Gates’ art of mind-using, which he regarded as an improved scientific method.
For further biographical details see the Elmer Gates Wikipedia entry.
Elmer Gates’ Concept of the Will
Gates believed that the usual definitions of will were incomplete and largely inaccurate. He outlines a process by which choices are made, and an act is willed into action via series of separate volitions.
He breaks down mental phenomena into five general classes of functions:
- Intellectual Processes e.g. sensating, imaging, conceptuating, ideating, thinking, reasoning processes, and introspection. It is the province of the intellect to know.
- Emotional Processes e.g. tender emotions, the ethical emotions, the religious emotions, the logical emotions. It is the province of emotion to feel the beauty, the utility, and the practical relations of external conditions and internal knowledge to oneself.
- Subconscious Processes
- Organic Feelings and Sensations
- Volition
The first four functions vary with different individuals and these peculiarities constitute the basis of choice. The fifth function, Volition, however, is not involved in making a choice but rises out of personal idiosyncrasies, education, and inherited or acquired character.
A willed act requires intellectual and emotional determination to continue it until completion. Emotional or intellectual reasons may lead to the loss of to will continue in which case the volitions are stopped.
The will-act contains intellective and emotive factors, but the volitions do not; we cannot will the truth to be different from what it is; we cannot will to like what we dislike by nature; we cannot will ourselves to accept a weaker motive for a stronger one; but, when a given act has been selected, then we can will that act, and the deed will be good or evil, according as our knowledge has been truthful or our emotions normal and our motives ethical. Will-training is an intellectual, emotional, social, and moral problem; while volition-training is a different and special problem. – Elmer Gates
Gates wrote that for repeatedly performed acts, volitions become subconscious and automatic. Volitions may be slow and inaccurate, or quick and skillful, and remain this way when they become automatic. It is therefore import to have special training when learning the act or process.
According to Gates the majority of people act out only their motives of interest and choose only acts and things which profit and please them. These people, Gates suggests, are automatons, “who must be urged by emotional bribes to do good.”
A smaller, but increasing, number of people are able to will that which they believe to be true even when they know it may potentially injure or harm them in some way. These people will truth, justice, and universal love.
Gates suggests that everyone can be trained to will the truth with less and less distortion due to selfish interests.
References
- Gates, Elmer. Can Will Power Be Trained? Success, March 1900, p. 93.
Selected Works
- Gates, D.E., Elmer Gates and the Art of Mind-Using, Exposition Press, (New York), 1971. ISBN 0-68246-994-7
- Gates, E., The Relations and Development of the Mind and Brain, Theosophical Society, (New York), 1904.
- Gates, E., “The Science of Mentation and some New General Methods of Psychologic Research”, The Monist, Vol.V, No. 4, (1895), pp.574-597.
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