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Voluntarism - IEP

Voluntarism is a philosophical theory that conceives of God or ultimate reality as a form of will or desire, rather than reason. It contrasts with intellectualism, which sees God's reason as primary. In medieval philosophy, voluntarism was advocated by thinkers like Duns Scotus and William of Ockham, while intellectualism was found in philosophers such as Aquinas. Modern philosophers like Spinoza and Leibniz also discussed voluntarism versus intellectualism and their implications for theology, ethics, and human psychology. 19th century voluntarism originated with Kant's view of practical reason having primacy over pure reason. Later thinkers like Fichte developed "rational voluntarism

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Voluntarism - IEP

Voluntarism is a philosophical theory that conceives of God or ultimate reality as a form of will or desire, rather than reason. It contrasts with intellectualism, which sees God's reason as primary. In medieval philosophy, voluntarism was advocated by thinkers like Duns Scotus and William of Ockham, while intellectualism was found in philosophers such as Aquinas. Modern philosophers like Spinoza and Leibniz also discussed voluntarism versus intellectualism and their implications for theology, ethics, and human psychology. 19th century voluntarism originated with Kant's view of practical reason having primacy over pure reason. Later thinkers like Fichte developed "rational voluntarism

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Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

iep.utm.edu/voluntar

Voluntarism
Voluntarism is the theory that God or the ultimate nature of reality is to be conceived as some form of will (or
conation). This theory is contrasted to intellectualism, which gives primacy to God's reason. The
voluntarism/intellectualism distinction was intimately tied to medieval and modern theories of natural law; if
we grant that moral or physical laws issue from God, it next needs to be answered whether they issue from
God's will or God's reason. In medieval philosophy, voluntarism was championed by Avicebron, Duns Scotus,
and William of Ockham. Intellectualism, on the other hand, is found in Averroes, Aquinas, and Eckhart. The
opposing theories were applied to the human psychology, the nature of God, ethics, and the heaven. According
to intellectualism, choices of the will result from that which the intellect recognizes as good; the will itself is
determined. For voluntarism, by contrast, it is the will which determines which objects are good, and the will
itself is indetermined. Concerning the nature of heaven, intellectualists followed Aristotle's lead by seeing the
final state of happiness as a state of contemplation. Voluntarism, by contrast, maintains that final happiness is
an activity, specifically that of love. The conceptions of theology itself were polarized between these two views.
According to intellectualism, theology should be an essentiall speculative science; according to voluntarism, it is
a practical science aimed at controlling life, but not necessarily aimed at comprehending philosophic truth.In
the modern period Spinoza advocates intellectualism insofar as desire is an indication of imperfection, and the
passions are a source of human bondage. When all things are seen purely in rational relations, desire is stilled,
the mind is freed from the passions and we experience the intellectual love of God, which is the ideal
happiness. According to Leibniz, Spinoza's interpretation of the world as rational and logical left no place for the
individual, or for the conception of ends or purposes as a determining factor in reality. Voluntarism is seen in
Leibniz's view of the laws which govern monads (individual units of which all reality is composed) in so far as
they are the laws of the conscious realization of ends.

19th century voluntarism has its origin in Kant, particularly his doctrine of the "primacy of the practical over the
pure reason." Intellectually, humans are incapable of knowing ultimate reality, but this need not and must not
interfere with the duty of acting as though the spiritual character of this reality were certain. Freedom cannot
be demonstrated speculatively, but whenever a person acts under a motive supplied by reason, he is thereby
exhibiting the practical efficiency of reason, and thus showing its reality in a practical sense. Following Kant,
two distinct lines of voluntarism have proceeded which may be called rational and irrational voluntarism
respectively. For Fichte, the originator of rational voluntarism, the ethical is primary both in the sphere of
conduct and in the sphere of knowledge. The whole nature of consciousness can be understood only from the
point of view of ends which are set up by the self. The actual world, with all the activity that it has, is only to be
understood as material for the activity of the practical reason, as the means through which the will achieves
complete freedom and complete moral realization. Schopenhauer's irrational voluntarism asserts a more
radical opposition between the will and intellect. For him, the will is by its very nature irrational. It manifests
itself in various stages in the world of nature as physical, chemical, magnetic, and vital force, pre-eminently,
however, in the animal kingdom in the form of "the will to live," which means the tendency to assert itself in the
struggle for means of existence and for reproduction of the species. This activity is all of it blind, so far as the
individual agent is concerned, although the power and existence of the will are thereby asserted continually.

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