SPONTANEITY
SPONTANE’ITY, the name for the doctrine, referring to the Human Mind, that muscular action may, and does, arise from purely internal causes, and independent of the stimulus of sensations. It had long been the tacit assumption, in Mental Phi losophy, that we are never moved to action of any kind, except under the stimulation of some feeling, some pleasure or pain, or some end in view. To this is now opposed the doctrine of the Spontaneous commencement of movements under certain cir cumstances; which, however, does not exclude, but only supple ments, the operation of the feelings in stimulating movements, as in the ordinary course of voluntary action. .The doctrine sup poses that the nerve-centers, after repose and nourishment, ac quire a fulness of vital energy, which discharges itself in the play of movement, without any other occasion or motive; the addition of a feeling, or end, enhances and directs the activity, but does not wholly create it.
Of the various proofs and illustrations of Spontaneity, perhaps the most striking is that furnished by the movements of young animals of the active species. A young dog or kitten shows a degree of activity out of all proportion to any feeling to be gratified, or any end to be served; we can interpret it only as internal energy seeking vent, irrespective of the pursuit of pleasure or the avoidance of pain—in other words, the action of the will. When the accumulated energy is expended, the animal falls back into a state of repose, and is then roused only by the stimulus of sensation. The state called ‘ freshness’ in a horse, for example, is a state of superabundant and irrepressible activity. Children go through the same phase : after rest or confinement, they burst forth incontinently into some form of active excitement, of which a part may be considered as pure spontaneity, while part may be owing to sensation.
The doctrine is well fitted to express the difference between the active and the sensitive temperaments; for if it were true that action is in proportion to the stimulation of the feelings, the most susceptible characters would be the most active. But, in point of fact the active temperament is manifested by a profusion of activity for its own sake, with little circumspection or regard to consequences; and constitutes the restless, bustling, roughshod, energetic, and enterprising disposition of mind, as seen in sports men soldiers, travelers, &c.
The explanation of the growth of the Will (q. v.), or voluntary power, involves the spontaneous beginning of movements.—See Bain on The Senses and the Intellect, 3d edit., p. 76.