Human Behavior > Man as a Conative Being
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Man as a Conative BeingMan as a Conative Being
We experience our existence in space-time as an existence of awareness. We are aware of who we are and how we live. Consequently we are aware of the fact that we can consciously think and reason (cognitive function). We are also aware of our ability to experience specific feelings (subjective function).
Although these feelings are interrelated and dependent on each other we can clearly distinguish among them. In the same manner we experience the knowledge that with our behaviour we are headed in a certain direction (that we take decisions for ourselves and aim at and pursue specific goals) as a conscious element of our functioning - the conative function. This function is especially involved in the purposefulness of human behaviour. The purposeful striving of man is sometimes described as will, will-power, perseverance, resistance et cetera. This constituent of human functioning is inseparably linked to the intellectual and emotional experiences of the individual. We strive because we have a particular insight into some subject or other or because in our imagination we create a picture of that toward which we are headed. Often it is an emotional stimulus that motivate us to work the harder in order to change this picture into reality. While the conative function (as in the affective function) encompass this clear interaction among the various elements it is equally true that at the same time man experiences his drive toward the future (purposefulness) as a separate dimension of his functioning. Dr Neil Whitehouse © 2004 – 2009. All rights reserved
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