The motives of men by George Albert Coe
"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a philosophical and social-psychological treatise written in the early 20th century. It probes what truly drives human conduct, arguing that modern cynicism about “human nature” arises from cultural forces rather than immutable defects. Drawing on education, psychology, religion, literature, economics, and recent history, it examines how war, industrialism, and fashionable theories shrink our sense of what we can want and become. It
points toward enlarging and better directing our desires as the path to a more generous, cooperative, and meaningful life. The opening of the work frames the author’s purpose in a candid preface: from vantage points in education, the psychology of religion, and public life, he sets out to understand the dynamics of human motivation and why the age doubts itself. He argues that wants shape who we are; meagre desires make meagre lives, and schools and churches often sell what they have instead of cultivating richer aims. Part I surveys the sources of disillusionment: the war’s propaganda and profiteering eroded trust; evolution was misread as degrading humanity; contemporary literature fixates on irrational impulses; competing psychologies cloud the picture; industrialism normalizes profit-first conflict and insincerity; and Christianity, entangled with the economic order, fails to demonstrate the regenerative change it proclaims. The section closes by introducing Part II’s claim that this gloom is itself mistaken, and Chapter IX clarifies the core issue: not nature’s scarcity, but our suspected inability to desire higher ends—setting up an inquiry into whether that suspicion is true. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Coe, George Albert, 1862-1951 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 28025365 |
| Title | The motives of men |
| Original Publication | New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1928, reprint 1929. |
| Credits | Sean/IB@DP |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | BF: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Psychology, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis |
| Subject | Psychology |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77278 |
| Release Date | Nov 20, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 302 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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