Voluntarism (metaphysics)

By the term voluntarism (from Latin voluntas, will; doctrine of the importance of the will ), reference is made ​​to views that emphasize the primacy of the will - usually in contrast to the mind. Depending on the context of use are different specific meanings.

Sociology and philosophy of history

With " voluntarism " the view is referred to as since the late 19th century that the acts of will have a typical, decisive for the understanding of all social and psychic processes meaning.

The term was coined by Ferdinand Tönnies. With him the will constituted axiomatically the object of knowledge of sociology.

Paul Barth founded his 1897 foundation of the philosophy of history based on Ferdinand Tönnies voluntarist.

Philosophical Anthropology and Psychology

Anthropological conceptions With " voluntarism " sometimes referred to, according to which the will in the determination of the essence of man is more important than reason or both are opposite to each other.

Representative of a psychological voluntarism assume that the wool with the him closely associated emotions and affects constituting an integral part of social and psychological experience, the position of which is on par with the sensations and ideas. Thus, mental processes are to be understood as processes in itself, based on the subjective response of humans on their environment and - at least partly - are not determined by others.

Metaphysics

In addition, voluntarism may relate to specific philosophical theories in which the will is regarded as ontologically fundamental, such as in the in the world unfolded by Arthur Schopenhauer as Will and Idea so-called " metaphysical voluntarism ".

Philosophy of religion, theology and theological ethics

Often the term is in the context of philosophy of religion use to identify positions that teach a priority of the divine will from the human rationality standards. An antonym to this, in this context, rationalism or intellectualism.

The metaethical position, return the moral good to the will of God is referred to as theological voluntarism. Such claims were, for example, Duns Scotus and William of Ockham attributed to what is in the research but very controversial.

In the 19th and early 20th century was also understood with voluntarism generally a religious-philosophical position that ( rather than, for example, regarded the practical pursuit of life that emphasized subjectively lived religiosity religion as a system of understanding truths and the meaning of human existence entirely theoretical in the to see knowledge of these truths set ).

In the English-speaking world, the term " Voluntaryism " was (Eng. usually translated as voluntarism ) used for a free church movement in the 19th century, which also stresses against the dogmatic hardening of the mainline churches, the individual decision of faith. Therefore Typically the idea that the church should only include as believers church the community of born-again Christians. In order to preserve the voluntary nature of their commitment and to shape the practice of religion only by the spontaneous institutions of civil society, voluntarists for a clear separation of church and state have used. Leading voluntarists as Edward Baines made ​​themselves strongly in the 1840s against a compulsory education and government sponsorship of schools.

Ethics and Political Philosophy

Political " Voluntaryismus "

In the English -speaking world, the term refers to the " voluntaryism " a social and political philosophy. This meaning has evolved in the 19th century in England from the term for the Free Church Voluntaryism and was picked up the end of the 20th century by the libertarian movement in the United States again. The Voluntaryismus represents how many forms of libertarian or anarcho -capitalist social philosophy libertarianistischer or an ajar to John Locke theory of property. Thereafter, each person may have their own body and the fruits of their own work. The political voluntarism also claimed the non- aggression principle. Thus, violence is to be granted but not exercised as a public authority only in the form of private self-defense. State sovereignty is on principle regarded as illegitimate, that it restricts individual property. Important reference authors are, inter alia, Murray Rothbard, Robert LeFevre and various classic anarcho- capitalism or market anarchism. One difference to other forms of market anarchism is usually seen in the rejection of violence as a political election process as a means for the planned abolition of the state. Auberon Herbert called his position already " Voluntaryism " and shared many of theses today the representative of a political voluntarism, but not, for example, the complete rejection of any State Government. The meaning in the sense of political voluntarism was taken up again, as the magazine The Voluntaryist appeared that published since 1982, contributions to political voluntarism.

Use in Marxism

In the context of Marxism, the term voluntarism was used occasionally as a battle cry in intra- Marxist debates. Starting from the deterministic conception of the class struggle is in this case the political opponents accused voluntarism. So Rosa Luxembourg fought for example, the voluntarism of the Polish Socialist Party. Members of the SED called Rudi Dutschke as a " voluntarist " because he represented libertarian socialist approaches.