[xmca] Action, Volition, Will

[Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>]

Recently, on this site  there was some discussion on the concept of
"volition" and how it is conceptualized  within different discourses or
traditions.
I have a book in my library "The Ways of the Will" [2000] which are selected
essays first written by Leslie Farber in the 1960's and 1970's. All the
articles are reflections on his understanding of the concept of the "will".
Following is Farber's reflections on this topic which I thought were
interesting.
He states, that althought the term "will" has been used "as a synonym for
decision, choice, intension, passion, spirit, determination, control, or
volition, my use of the term is GENERAL enough to include all these
qualities: I understand will to be the category through which we examine
that portion of our life which is the MOVER of our life in a DIRECTION, or
toward an OBJECT in TIME....Will, then, is the MOVER of ACTIONS both trivial
and important." (p.76)

Farber differentiates two realms of the will:
 the first is action that is not conscious and the second realm is conscious
willing. Farber, as an example, asks us to imagine a game of tennis. When
the game is most fluid we can not be said to be "planning" our shots and
strategies though will is involved in our shots and strategies. We cannot be
said to be aware of will itself. Mind and body are joined in a totality.
"Will is so wedded to our faculties, our perceptions, our motor
possibilities that it may be said to be unconscious in this first realm.
Farber acknowledges this way  of understanding the unconscious is derived
from Martin Buber who understood the unconscious as that state that precedes
the split into psychical and physical.  In the first realm will is
unconscious and it is only retrospectively that we can INFER the place of
will.

Farber now asks us to imagine our tennis game going badly requiring us to
ASSESS our failure. Will clearly becomes conscious, as we will ourselves to
put more spin on the ball, and we are now conscious of our willing.This
experience of conscious willing Farber terms the second realm of will.

Farber goes on to suggest the first realm of will MOVES IN A DIRECTION
rather than towards a PARTICULAR OBJECT. "Direction" for Farber means a way
whose end cannot be known "a way open to possibility, including the
possibility of failure" This first realm of will is experienced
predominately as one of FREEDOM- the freedom to think, speak, and
act forthrightly

In contrast, the second realm of will MOVES us TOWARD a PARTICULAR
OBJECTIVE., all such movement in the second realm being conscious or
potentially conscious. We DO this to GET THAT. All this conscious willing is
in order to ACHIEVE a specific objective. Here the experience is NOT FREEDOM
but CONSCIOUS WILLING, successful or not.

Now what Farber suggests is that when we are absorbed in this second realm
of will, in which our consciousness is fully absorbed by objectives, we are
LESS AVAILABLE TO RELATION, should it arrive.

Farber recognizes we live our lives in both realms "trusting that the
ACHIEVEMENTS of the second realm will correct the indulgances of the first,
and that the freedom of the first realm will provide some DIRECTION and
scope for the activity of the second.

Besides reflecting on notions of the will Farber also gave a lot of thought
to the concept of  anxiety.  He believed anxiety was intimately related to
will. He saw anxiety as the consequence of willing what cannot be willed
which causes the distress we label anxiety.For Farber, anxiety is a
consequence of "willfulness" meaning the state of being GOVERNED by will,
without yielding to "reason"

The notions of volition, self-control, self-mastery, agency, and the place
of these various concepts [which historically were explored as concepts of
the will] continue to be key concepts in our sociocultural narratives.  I
thought Farber's ideas worth sharing.

Larry
_______________________________________________
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca