to our inclinations. We daily are confronted by the necessity of making decisions
in which the mind must be compelled by effort to take this direction or that
direction. Conflicting motives or tendencies create frequent necessity for
coercion. It is often necessary to drive our bark counter to the current of our
desires or our habits, or to enter into conflict with a temptation.
Volition Acts in the Making of Decisions.—Everyone knows for himself the
state of inward unrest which we call indecision. A thought enters the mind which
would of itself prompt an act; but before the act can occur, a contrary idea
appears and the act is checked; another thought comes favoring the act, and is in
turn counterbalanced by an opposing one. The impelling and inhibiting ideas we
call motives or reasons for and against the proposed act. While we are balancing
the motives against each other, we are said to deliberate. This process of
deliberation must go on, if we continue to think about the matter at all, until one
set of ideas has triumphed over the other and secured the attention. When this
has occurred, we have decided, and the deliberation is at an end. We have
exercised the highest function of the will and made a choice.
Sometimes the battle of motives is short, the decision being reached as soon as
there is time to summon all the reasons on both sides of the question. At other
times the conflict may go on at intervals for days or weeks, neither set of
motives being strong enough to vanquish the other and dictate the decision.
When the motives are somewhat evenly balanced we wisely pause in making a
decision, because when one line of action is taken, the other cannot be, and we
hesitate to lose either opportunity. A state of indecision is usually highly
unpleasant, and no doubt more than one decision has been hastened in our lives
simply that we might be done with the unpleasantness attendant on the
consideration of two contrary and insistent sets of motives.
It is of the highest importance when making a decision of any consequence that
we should be fair in considering all the reasons on both sides of the question,
allowing each its just weight. Nor is this as easy as it might appear; for, as we
saw in our study of the emotions, our feeling attitude toward any object that
occupies the mind is largely responsible for the subjective value we place upon
it. It is easy to be so prejudiced toward or against a line of action that the motives
bearing upon it cannot get fair consideration. To be able to eliminate this
personal factor to such an extent that the evidence before us on a question may
be considered on its merits is a rare accomplishment.
Types of Decision.—A decision may be reached in a variety of ways, the most