Voluntarism

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The expression voluntarism (from Latin voluntas , will ; doctrine of the meaning of the will) refers to views that emphasize the primacy of the will - usually in contrast to the understanding . Depending on the context of use, there are different specific meanings.

Sociology and Philosophy of History

“Voluntarism” has been used since the end of the 19th century to describe the view that volitional processes have a typical meaning that is decisive for the understanding of all social and psychological processes.

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

In 1897, Paul Barth founded his philosophy of history on the basis of Ferdinand Tönnies voluntaristically.

Philosophical anthropology and psychology

“Voluntarism” is sometimes used to describe anthropological conceptions, according to which the will is more important than reason in determining the essence of man, or both are opposed to one another.

Advocates of psychological voluntarism assume that the will, with the emotions and affects that are closely related to it, constitute an integral part of social and psychological experience, the position of which is on a par with feelings and ideas. According to this, psychological processes are to be understood as processes in themselves that are based on the subjective reaction of people to their environment and - at least in part - are not determined by others.

metaphysics

In addition, voluntarism can refer to specific philosophical theories in which the will is ontologically fundamental, such as the so-called “ metaphysical voluntarism” developed by Arthur Schopenhauer in Die Welt als Wille und Bild.

Philosophy of Religion, Theology and Theological Ethics

The expression is often used in the context of the philosophy of religion to denote positions that teach the primacy of divine will over human standards of rationality. A counter-term to this in this context is rationalism or intellectualism .

The metaethical position that the moral good can be traced back to the will of God is also referred to as theological voluntarism . Such theses have been ascribed to Duns Scotus or Wilhelm von Ockham , for example , but this is very controversial in research.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, voluntarism was also generally understood to be a religious-philosophical position that emphasized the practical life, the subjectively lived religiosity (instead of, for example, understanding religion as a system of intellectual truths and the meaning of human existence entirely in theoretical terms Knowledge of these sentence truths to see).

In the English-speaking world in the 19th century, the term “voluntaryism” (German mostly translated as voluntarism) was used for a free church movement , which also emphasizes individual beliefs in relation to the dogmatic consolidation of the major churches. The idea that the church as a believers church should only include the community of born again Christians is therefore typical . In order to preserve the voluntary character of their confession and to shape the practice of religion only through the spontaneous institutions of civil society, voluntarists have advocated a clear separation of church and state. Leading volunteers like Edward Baines campaigned against compulsory education and state sponsorship of schools in the 1840s.

Ethics and political philosophy

Political "Voluntarism"

In the English-speaking world , the term “voluntaryism” also describes a social or political philosophy . This meaning developed in the 19th century in England from the term for free church voluntaryism and was taken up again by the libertarian movement in the USA at the end of the 20th century . Like many forms of libertarian or libertarian or anarcho-capitalist social philosophy, voluntaryism represents a property theory based on John Locke . According to this, each person should be able to dispose of their own body and the fruits of their labor. Political voluntarism also claims the principle of non-aggression . According to this, violence should only be exercised in the form of private self-defense, but not as public violence. State rule is in principle seen as illegitimate because it restricts individual property. Important reference authors are u. a. Murray Rothbard , Robert LeFevre and various classics of anarcho-capitalism and market anarchism . A difference to other forms of market anarchism is usually seen in the rejection of violence and political electoral processes as a means of the planned abolition of the state. Auberon Herbert already called his position "voluntaryism" and shared many of the theses of today's representatives of political voluntarism, but not, for example, the complete rejection of any state government. The meaning in terms of political voluntarism was taken up again when the journal The Voluntaryist appeared, which has been publishing articles on political voluntarism since 1982.

Use in Marxism

In the context of Marxism , the term voluntarism was occasionally used as a fighting term in internal Marxist disputes. Based on the deterministic view of the class struggle , the political opponent is accused of voluntarism. For example, Rosa Luxemburg fought the voluntarism of the Polish Socialist Party. Members of the SED described Rudi Dutschke as “voluntarists” because he represented libertarian - socialist approaches.

Law

In the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, voluntarism also encompassed legal theory. The advocates of a legal concept based on the “act of will” rejected the ideas of the historical school of law because they found the doctrine of the people's spirit to be too idealistic. Instead, they focused on the "purpose in law", important in this regard are Rudolf von Jhering (representative of the conceptual jurisprudence ), Philipp Heck (pioneer of interest jurisprudence ), Gustav Radbruch (especially known for his justice thesis ).

literature

  • Rudolf Eisler: Voluntarism . In: Dictionary of Philosophical Terms . 1904.
  • Friedrich Kirchner: Voluntarism . In: Dictionary of basic philosophical terms . 1907.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Ferdinand Tönnies , Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft , Leipzig 1887, as well as Ders., The fact of wanting , Berlin 1982.
  2. ↑ Paul Barth, The Philosophy of History as Sociology. Foundation and critical overview , 3./4. Edition, GR Reisland, Leipzig 1922
  3. ↑ Arthur Schopenhauer: The world as will and conception , Volume 1: 1818/1819; Volume 2: 1844.
  4. ↑ See Mark Murphy:  Theological Voluntarism. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
  5. ↑ Cf. for example CP Ragland: Scotus on the Decalogue: what sort of voluntarism? , in: Vivarium 36 (1998), 67-81; T. Williams: Reason, morality and voluntarism in Duns Scotus: a pseudo-problem dissolved , in: Modern Schoolman 74 (1997), 73-94.
  6. ↑ Cf. with reference to Reinhold Seeberg's dogma history Jan Rohls: Protestantische Theologie der Neuzeit: Das 20. Jahrhundert, Mohr Siebeck, 1997, ISBN 3161466446 , p. 106.
  7. ↑ See for example Max Weber: Collected essays on the sociology of religion, Volume 1, UTB. Uni-Taschenbücher, new edition 1988, ISBN 3825214885 , p. 131.
  8. ^ "Voluntaryism." In: W. and R. Chambers: Chambers's encyclopaedia: a dictionary of universal knowledge for the people, Volume 10, 1868.
  9. ↑ However, the alternative of private or church funding of the education system turned out to be impossible due to a lack of sufficient resources, which Baines also had to recognize later, Gerald Parsons: "Religion in Victorian Britain: Interprétations." Manchester University Press, 1989, p. 74.
  10. ^ On the History of the Word "Voluntaryism" by Carl Watner. On: Voluntarist.com.
  11. ↑ See e.g. B. The voluntaryist creed (1906), A plea for voluntaryism (1908), Simpson, London 1908, digitized at archive.org . For a typical reference to A. Herbert cf. e.g. M. Rothbard: Man, economy, and the state with power and market , Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, Alabama 2009, pp. 184ff et passim.
  12. ↑ The magazine's homepage provides digital copies . A selection edition in book form exists with Carl Watner (ed.): I Must Speak Out . The Best of The Voluntaryist, 1982-1999, Fox & Wilkes, San Francisco 1999.
  13. ↑ Jan Schröder : Law as Science. History of legal methodology in modern times (1500-1933). 2nd edition, Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63011-8 . P. 281 ff; Horst Dreier : Secularization and Sacrality , 2013, p. 45 f.
  14. ↑ Mehrdad Payandeh : Judicial Generation of Law. Theory, dogmatics and methodology of the effects of prejudices. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-16-155034-8 . Pp. 65-69.