By Sigurd Arild and Ryan Smith
Here on the site we often tell our readers that Jungian functions are about cognitive processes and not specific contents of consciousness. Content can be understood as any entity of consciousness, be it a thought, feeling, sensation, or belief, i.e. anything that is contained in consciousness. The content need not be consciousness of a physical object, in fact, it need not even be true (for example, a man may have as a content of his consciousness the belief that his girlfriend has never cheated on him when in fact she has). The basic idea when dealing with the contents of consciousness is that there is cognitive attention directed at something and that it is this attention that distinguishes between conscious and unconscious mental contents. Attention to the entities of consciousness is common to all of the functions; what differs is the way in which each function interacts with the contents given.
In this article we will talk about Knowing and Willing as prima facie modes of attending to the entities of consciousness – modes that are especially applicable to NTPs and NTJs. For our purposes, we postulate that there are two modes of relation between consciousness and content (in reality there are more, but we have not discovered them all yet).
- There is one mode in which the contents of consciousness determine the kind of attention levelled at it, i.e. where the content dominates the attention, thus causing the individual consciousness to get lost in the object; we call this mode Knowing.
- There is another mode in which attention determines the content, i.e. where the consciousness dominates the content, thus causing the object to get lost in the individual consciousness of it; we call this mode Willing.
Knowing
In the Knowing mode of relation between consciousness and attention to the entities of consciousness, we aspire to have our consciousness determined by the object. Our goal is that our consciousness – i.e. the subjective element of consciousness – should merely discover the object without adding anything to it or distorting it in any way. For this impartial discovery to occur, it is logically necessary that the object should exist prior to, and independently of, us. It must be an already accomplished and agreed-upon fact; one that is not brought into being by our cognition of it.
Willing
In the Willing mode of relation between consciousness and attention to the entities of consciousness, we aspire to embody a “consciousness first” approach. In the Knowing mode we are at ease when the fact existed prior to our own cognition of it, but the Willing mode functions differently. Here we operate on the basis of an ideal initial stage where only our own consciousness existed and there was not yet any object to preoccupy it. Psychologically, we may say that in the Willing mode, objects are ushered into existence by way of our consciousness of them. Objects are felt to have no purpose apart from the purpose that we will for them. Hence we call it Willing.
Contrast of Knowing and Willing
In the Knowing mode, we aspire to have ideal knowledge of the object, even beyond what is humanly possible. But in the Willing mode, we aspire to have the objects of consciousness conform to the injunctions of our personal consciousness. In the knowing mode, the properties of the objects of consciousness are therefore ends in themselves, whereas in the Willing mode, these properties should ideally be completely conducive to the volitions of one’s personal consciousness. Willing thus operates on the basis of pure imagination, whereas Knowing only imagines on the basis of facts that are already given to it. The ideal of Knowing is therefore truth, while the ideal of Willing is freedom.
It might be thought that in order for us to Will something, we must know what to will in advance. This is certainly axiomatically true, but psychologically, we are here dealing with one of the many instances of surprising inferences contained in Jungian typology: In the case of the NTJ types, for example, we may say that they often will things without completely knowing in advance what it is that they are willing. One reason for this remarkable arrangement is that, as Te types, they care about being decisive before caring about being precise. By way of Te, they quickly see a goal, but with depreciated Fi, and with no Si to instill moderation in their pursuits, they do not necessarily pause to ponder what it is they are advancing. The psychological injunction to will something into being may in practice occur with only scant insight into the outcome willed.
NTP Knowing and NTJ Willing
It should now be easy to see how Knowing and Willing conform to the typical makeup of NTPs and NTJs, all else being equal.
In the Knowing mode:
- We aspire to let the whole of our own consciousness be determined by the external object. Thus our motives are neatly aligned with Ne.
- We wish merely to discover the object on its own terms, without taking sides or deploying it for any specific purpose. We employ a mode of inquiry where, ideally and in the final respect, we do not even require a consciousness to be conscious of the object. Hence this mode of attention blends well with Ti.
- We are more at ease if an object of consciousness is already existent and agreed upon, prior to our engagement with it. These properties of the object are soothing to Fe and Si.
But in the Willing mode:
- We invariably let the external object be determined by our consciousness of it, which is akin to Ni.
- We push for specific goals and outcomes; goals that may make considerable and skillful use of external facts, but which are ultimately given precedence (i.e. one goal is pursued over another) by the means of our personal consciousness, thus allowing the exerciser of Te.
- We crave freedom from the already existing and the communally agreed upon, which speaks to the fancies of Fi and Se over those of Fe and Si. We want to arrive at results that are iconoclastic and seminally new; not a brilliant reorganization of an already existing body of knowledge (as in the case of the NTPs).
- We are preoccupied with the aspirations of our personal consciousness and thus cannot be self-forgetful.
Thus we say that, all else being equal, Knowing conforms to the NTP temperament, while Willing comes closer to the natural dispositions of the NTJs.
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to Professor T.R.V. Murti for his discussions of transcendental psychology.