The Consequences of Monism 239the goals that we must give our actions. We are returned
to ourselves. We ourselves must give our actions their
content. We seek in vain if we seek directives for our will
outside the world in which we live. If we go beyond the
satisfaction of natural drives for which Mother Nature has
provided, we must seek such directives in our own moral
imaginations, unless we find it easier to let ourselves be
directed by the moral imagination of others. That is, we
must either forego all action or act according to reasons
that either we give ourselves from the world of our ideas
or others give us from the same source. If we move be-
yond our sense-bound life of instinct and execution of the
commands of other human beings, then we are determined
by nothing other than ourselves. We must act out of an im-
pulse that we set ourselves, and that is determined by
nothing else. To be sure, this impulse is conceptually de-
termined in the one world of ideas. But, in fact, it can be
drawn down from this world and translated into reality
only through a human being. It is only within human be-
ings themselves that monism can find a basis for the hu-
man translation of ideas into reality. Before an idea can
become an action, a human being must firstwant it.
Therefore, such wanting has its source in human beings
themselves. Human beings are thus the ultimate determi-
nants of their actions. They are free.
Addenda to the new edition (1918)- The second part of this book has sought to esta-
blish that freedom is to be found in the reality of human