VOLITION • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Volition

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/voʊlˈɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Volition n.

The act of willing or choosing; the act of forming a purpose; the exercise of the will. "Volition is the actual exercise of the power the mind has to order the consideration of any idea, or the forbearing to consider it." "Volition is an act of the mind, knowingly exerting that dominion it takes itself to have over any part of the man, by employing it in, or withholding it from, any particular action."

The result of an act or exercise of choosing or willing; a state of choice.

The power of willing or determining; will.

Synonyms: Will; choice; preference; determination; purpose. Volition, Choice. Choice is the familiar, and volition the scientific, term for the same state of the will; viz., an "elective preference." When we have "made up our minds" (as we say) to a thing, i. e., have a settled state of choice respecting it, that state is called an immanent volition; when we put forth any particular act of choice, that act is called an emanent, or executive, or imperative, volition. When an immanent, or settled state of, choice, is one which controls or governs a series of actions, we call that state a predominant volition; while we give the name of subordinate volitions to those particular acts of choice which carry into effect the object sought for by the governing or "predominant volition." See Will.

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Etymology of 'Volition'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Volition" Quotes from Famous Books

... now lying at the foot of my bed thinking matters out, and bids me tell you that after various attempts to escape Home Rule, not being (like her mistress) one of those natures made perfect through suffering, she is only 'kept alive by the force of her own volition,' in this house that is full of old maids and has nothing better in it than one old cat, and he isn't worth hunting, being destitute of a tail. Naturally she is doing her best (like somebody else) to keep herself unspotted from that world which is a source of so much temptation, ...

— The Christian - A Story • Hall Caine

... dangerous tendency. When the traces of individual action upon nations are lost, it often happens that the world goes on to move, though the moving agent is no longer discoverable. As it becomes extremely difficult to discern and to analyze the reasons which, acting separately on the volition of each member of the community, concur in the end to produce movement in the old mass, men are led to believe that this movement is involuntary, and that societies unconsciously obey some superior force ruling over them. But even when the general ...

— Democracy In America, Volume 2 (of 2) • Alexis de Tocqueville

... the divine existence. He first proves the existence of personality and will,(569) and uses this idea for the purpose of exploring the outer world; arguing that matter is inert and not self-active, he regards matter in motion as indicating force, and therefore volition; uniformity in its motion as proving a law, and therefore an intelligent will,(570) in which wisdom, power, and goodness combine.(571) This being is God, to whom man is subject. The universe is universal order. The physical evil ...

— History of Free Thought in Reference to The Christian Religion • Adam Storey Farrar

... one; he ascribes the success, the carrying out of the willing, to the will itself, and thereby enjoys an increase of the sensation of power which accompanies all success. "Freedom of Will"—that is the expression for the complex state of delight of the person exercising volition, who commands and at the same time identifies himself with the executor of the order—who, as such, enjoys also the triumph over obstacles, but thinks within himself that it was really his own will that overcame them. In ...

— Beyond Good and Evil • Friedrich Nietzsche

... I've learned to wait. [Sits. A bachelor at sixty, I found myself Encumbered with a ward—nay, not that— Enriched with female loveliness and grace Bequeathed unto me by a dying friend. Volition had no part in that, nor in My sudden recrudescency of love. I willed our marriage; but 'twas fate bestowed The joys I long had fled. Then came our life In Amsterdam; each day so filled with bliss It overflowed into the next, and days Of joy grew into weeks ...

— The Scarlet Stigma - A Drama in Four Acts • James Edgar Smith

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