The Active Organism in Structuralism

摘要

The active-organism and reactive-organism concepts are meaningful in psychology to the extent that they are understood as basic and essential metaphors which form the context for the definition of other concepts. The origin of the active-organism metaphor is found in philosophical positions which accept activity as primary and the object as derived. The reverse is the case for the reactive-organism metaphor. The consequences of an active-organism metaphor include the development of alternative paradigms for the understanding of diverse areas such as language, conception, perception, and motivation.