Conclusion

On Ravaisson’s account, as we have seen from the beginning of this study, tendency and inclination constitute a principle continuous with, but irreducible to, the will. Tendency and inclination—which are also continuous with each other in that tendencies possibly become inclinations in the course of the development of motor or sensory habits—cannot, therefore, be understood in any kind of voluntarist or libertarian sense, as a function of reasons or intellectual choice. Inclination and tendency in motor habit are purposive, but this, as ...