What is voluntarism. The history of the doctrine of will

What is the basis of being? What kind of invisible force makes a person take those or other decisions? More than one generation of philosophers and scientists tried to answer these questions, putting forward a variety of opinions. This article will consider one of the Theories, called voluntarism. This term was first introduced by the German sociologist F.Thönnis in 1883, but the concept itself was developed much earlier.

What is voluntarism? This is an ideological and philosophical trend, which calls the first principle of the whole will (from Latin voluntas). The cause of the emergence of the world, according to voluntarists, was the will of God, the causes of all human actions are also covered in volitional impulses. Some representatives of this direction build the will in the category of absolute truths, the cosmic force from which all the mental processes of man flow. The mind now becomes a secondary position, which is why voluntarism is the cornerstone of the irrational philosophy of the 19th century.

For the first time the idea of voluntarism was formulated by the Roman thinker Augustine, who believed that the will is the motive power of the soul, which induces man to self-knowledge, controls all our movements, extracts thoughts from the depths of our consciousness. This concept was developed many centuries later in the works of A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche, as well as many philosophers and psychologists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

What is Schopenhauer's voluntarism?

In his opinion, the will - this one of the components of the world, along with matter, is a rush to life. Schopenhauer singled out the following stages of the formation of the will:

1. Attraction.
2. Magnetism.
3. Chemistry is an inorganic world.
4. Motivated will (there is only a person).

Absolute initial will is aggressive, it manifests itself in the inorganic world. Then it breaks into the living world and manifests itself in search of food. The will compels us to satisfy all new and new needs, and also creates them. In the end, the philosopher writes, the end will be sad, because the resources are limited, and it is impossible to divide everything equally. Suicide is just an act of protest against dissatisfaction.

What is the voluntarism of F. Nietzsche?

Another German philosopher who contributed to the development of the doctrine of the will was F. Nietzsche. In his early works, Schopenhauer's influence is felt, but later ones acquire a peculiar shade. F. Nietzsche believed that the will is not unified, but discretized, that is, in any living being it has its own, and all world Processes occur only because of a conflict of interests - "if there was no will, there would be no movement; There would only be ratios of the quantities of some substances relative to others. " Nietzsche replaces Schopenhauer's "will to live" "will to power," which he regards as the main driving force in life, according to which one must live - "Push the falling man."

Voluntarism, however, is not a definition of strictly philosophical phenomena, it can often be heard in assessing the subject's economic activity. Domestic schools give the following interpretation:

Economic voluntarism is the adoption of irrational decisions, ignoring the environment and economic trends, based on a momentary whim.

And what is voluntarism in the representation of citizens of the Western powers? Here the term has a positive coloring, it is customary for them to designate decisions according to the will of the people, without any external pressure.