Herbart next considers the proportion in which the inhibition sum is spread out over the various, mutually antagonistic representations; this proportion is what he calls the “inhibition-ratio” (SW V: 285, ff. [§43]). The calculation of the inhibition ratio may not consider an individual representation as “an originally aggressive force [angreifende Kraft], but only as a resisting force [widerstehende Kraft]”, since, as we saw above, representations can on Herbart’s view only be considered to be force-like insofar as they resist one another, not “in themselves” (SW V: 285). Nonetheless, a representation will better resist countervailing forces and assert itself against other representations, “the more vivacious [stärker]” it is (SW V: 285). Hence, he argues, the share of the load, S, that a representation must bear is inversely proportional to its vivacity: \(1/i\), where “\(i\)” signifies vivacity (SW V: 285–6; SW IV: 371).[25]