Locomotion
The nature and organ of human locomotion; spontaneous local movement as the vital expression of appetition aroused by sensation.
Locomotion is the vital or immanent operation by which a sentient organism moves itself spontaneously from place to place in consequence of appetition. It is something really distinct from appetition: appetition is the tendency towards the object; locomotion is the carrying-out of that tendency in actual movement. The organ of locomotion is the motor nervous system and the muscles, directed by the central nervous system. In man, voluntary local movement is a characteristically complex act involving sensation, appetition, and the higher rational guidance of intellect and will — yet even in the purely sensory and appetitive aspects, the movement is genuinely vital and immanent.
a) Definition of Locomotion — b) Nature and Organ of Locomotion
a) Definition of Locomotion
Locomotion is the power to move locally by reason of an immanently active principle; it is an organic faculty exercised by the sentient organism in moving from place to place.
The faculty of locomotion is the immediate and proximate principle of spontaneous local movement in animals and human beings. It is something really distinct from appetition, for it is the faculty for going after what appetition tends towards. Appetition is the tendency evoked by sense-knowledge; locomotion is the carrying-out of that tendency in actual bodily movement.
b) Nature and Organ of Locomotion
Locomotion (from Latin locus “place,” and motio “movement”) is the vital, or immanent, operation by which a sentient organism moves itself spontaneously from place to place.
The spontaneous movement of an animal in response to sensation and appetition is called locomotion. We know that the dog senses food and wants it from the fact that he goes to it and eats it. Appetition follows sensation; movement follows appetition. Movement which has its roots in knowledge is called spontaneous movement.
In man, locomotion takes on a specifically human character. For in man the guiding influence of intellect and will supervenes upon the sensory-appetitive root of locomotion. Human voluntary action is locomotion raised to the level of rational control: reason judges the object, will chooses or refuses, and the locomotive faculty executes the choice. Nevertheless, even in its purely sensory dimension, locomotion is a genuine vital and immanent operation — the organism’s own movement, not a movement imposed from without by purely mechanical force.
The organ of locomotion is the motor nervous system and the muscular system which it activates, all under the central direction of the brain.
Sentient organisms are all endowed with some capacity for locomotion, however restricted. Even the simplest organisms that qualify as genuinely sentient manifest some power of moving towards the beneficial and away from the harmful. Locomotion is indeed a mark of sentient life: it is the vital consequence of having sensation and appetition, the bodily expression of the organism’s immanent orientation towards its own good.
Summary of the Article
In this brief Article we have defined locomotion and distinguished it from appetition. We have noted that locomotion is the carrying-out in bodily movement of the tendency which appetition has aroused in response to sensation. We have indicated the organ of locomotion (the motor nervous system and muscular system) and noted the specifically human character of voluntary locomotion, guided by intellect and will.