It is Herbart’s radical contention that consciousness is nothing more than the continuous stream of representations. [10]  These representations, he says cryptically, are the “self-preservations of the soul [Selbsterhaltungen der Seele]” (PsW: 171). That is, as we saw, because the soul (the terms, “psyche” and “soul”, will be used interchangeably in this article) is postulated to be simple and “originally an utter tabula rasa, without any life or thought” (SW VI: 120), the evident multiplicity of conscious representations generates a paradox (PsW: 171). Since the soul is by nature simple, the source of any psychic differentiation must be sought outside of it, viz., among the “objects” that affect it through the senses (PsW: 132).  Thus, on the one hand, the world impinges on and perturbs the soul’s natural placidity (cf., e.g., the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad; PsW: 132–3; but see Felsch 1904: 196–7); on the other hand, the soul resists these disturbances (i.e., the representations themselves) by constantly seeking to reestablish a harmonious unity or equilibrium among them and thus “preserve”, as far as possible, its own simplicity.