Voluntarism

Voluntarism is a descriptive term for a school of thought which regards the will as superior to the intellect and to emotion. This description has been applied to various points of view, from different cultural eras, in the areas of metaphysics, psychology and theology.

The term voluntarism was introduced by Ferdinand Tönnies into the philosophical literature and particularly used by Wilhelm Wundt and Friedrich Paulsen. The etymology of the word is from Latin (voluntas: the will, the desire; also: arbitrariness).

Will Durant, in the glossary to The Story of Philosophy, defines voluntarism as "the doctrine that will is the basic factor, both in the universe and in human conduct."

Medieval Voluntarism

Associated with John Duns Scotus, one of the foremost medieval scholastic philosophers. It is generally taken to be the philosophical emphasis on the divine will and human freedom.

Metaphysical Voluntarism

A proponent of metaphysical voluntarism is 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. In his view, the will is not reasoning, but an irrational, unconscious urge, in relation to which the intellect represents a secondary phenomenon. The will is actually the force at the core of all reality.

This putting out of the drive-detention-vital dynamics has influenced Friedrich Nietzsche (as will to power), Eduard von Hartmann, Sigmund Freud and the philosophy of life.

Realization and Science Theory

In another context the realization and science theory of Hugo Dingler, which starts with the unavoidable will act (as "I-Here-Now"). The methodical constructionalism of the school of Erlangen and the methodical culturalism of Marburg is to be seen subsequently.

Politics and Economics

In politics and economics, voluntarism (or voluntaryism) is the idea that human relations should be based on voluntary cooperation and natural law, to the exclusion of any political compulsion.

A journal is published based on this idea: The Voluntaryist. See also Voluntaryist.com

An example of voluntarist influence in business practice can be seen elucidated in an MJZ Web Hosting manifesto on the subject entitled Discarding Obligatory Work: The Lighthearted MJZ Web Hosting Tract on the Nomadically Voluntarist Practice of Volunteerism. Utilizing a syncretistic culmination of quotations from various philosophical, avant-garde and anti-work sources, the piece goes on to laud the proprietor’s refusal to hire tech support laborers, replacing their supposedly coerced necessity with voluntarist-based assistance. In an Internet milieu, which has no real set fragment of business hours (i.e. the generally agreed upon "nine to five" of everyday life), time itself as a point of work adherence completely loses importance, leaving the frequency of tech support attention completely up the personal will and autonomy of the voluntarist: "The MJZ Web Hosting volunteer does not resemble a wage-slave. Instead, she enjoys an experimental and unprecedented amount of freedom in her digital dance steps. He is not on a schedule — ever — and may choose to work or not work completely at will and on his own levels of motivation (as opposed to the miserably instilled pseudo-motivation of the shift-worker). Obligatory work is necessarily refused and the volunteer "works" on her own time. In the support ambience of which we are trying to achieve, there is no time-frame as controlled by the economic abstraction of time. In theory, the MJZ Web Hosting volunteer does not even require a clock (let alone the concept of time itself for that matter)."

Alternate views related to voluntarism in human societies are panarchism and some forms of anarchism, especially individualist anarchism.

See also

• Anarcho-capitalism
• Free market
• Free will
• Wendy McElroy

Notes and references

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