Comrade Kiwi at 05:18, 21 October 2025

2025-10-21T05:18:50Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 05:18, 21 October 2025
Line 28:		Line 28:
	<references />		<references />
	[[Category:Subjective idealism]]		[[Category:Subjective idealism]]
			[[Category:Utopian socialism]]

Comrade Kiwi at 05:15, 21 October 2025

2025-10-21T05:15:26Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 05:15, 21 October 2025
Line 27:		Line 27:
	== References ==		== References ==
	<references />		<references />
			[[Category:Subjective idealism]]

Comrade Kiwi: Done with the voluntarism article, simultaneously doing the mechanical materialism article alongside it, might add more critique later.

2025-10-20T14:32:11Z

Done with the voluntarism article, simultaneously doing the mechanical materialism article alongside it, might add more critique later.

New page

'''Voluntarism''' (also called volitionalism) is a philosophical doctrine that emphasizes the primacy of the will over intellect or reason. Voluntarists assert that will, desire, or volition is the fundamental factor in reality, knowledge, or action, rather than rational thought or material conditions.

== '''Types of voluntarism''' ==

[[Metaphysics|Metaphysical]] voluntarism holds that will or volition is the ultimate principle of reality. [[Arthur Schopenhauer]] famously argued that a blind, unconscious "Will" is the fundamental nature of all existence, driving all phenomena.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Wicks, Robert|newspaper=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2024 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.)|title=Arthur Schopenhauer|date=2003-05-12|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schopenhauer/|quote=...Schopenhauer philosophizes within the spirit of this tradition, for he believes that the supreme principle of the universe is likewise apprehensible through introspection, and that we can understand the world as various manifestations of this general principle. For Schopenhauer, this is not the principle of self-consciousness and rationally-infused will, but is rather what he simply calls “Will” – a mindless, aimless, non-rational impulse at the foundation of our instinctual drives, and at the foundational being of everything. Schopenhauer’s originality does not reside in his characterization of the world as Will, or as act – for we encounter this position in Fichte’s philosophy – but in the conception of Will as being devoid of rationality or intellect.}}</ref>

Theological voluntarism asserts that God's will is the basis of moral truth and reality itself. What is good is good simply because God wills it, not because of any rational or [[Objectivism|objective]] moral order. This position was held by medieval philosophers.

Ethical/Political voluntarism emphasizes individual will and choice as the basis for action and morality. In politics, voluntarism can manifest as the belief that social change occurs primarily through acts of will, individual or collective determination, rather than through material conditions or historical necessity.

== Voluntarism in the labor movement ==

In the context of [[Socialism|socialist]] and labor movements, voluntarism refers to the [[Idealism|idealist]] belief that [[Revolution|revolutionary change]] can be achieved purely through willpower, consciousness, or moral conviction, without regard to objective material conditions or the balance of [[Class struggle|class forces]].

[[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] critiqued voluntarism in the revolutionary movement, particularly the tendency to attempt insurrection or mass action when material conditions and class consciousness were not yet developed. While Lenin emphasized the importance of conscious organization and the [[vanguard party]], he insisted this must be grounded in analysis of objective conditions, the level of [[Capitalism|capitalist]] development, class forces, and contradictions within society.<ref>{{Web citation|author=V.I. Lenin|newspaper=Marxists.org|title=“Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder
“Left-Wing” Communism in Great Britian|date=1920-04 to 1920-05|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/ch09.htm|quote=The fundamental law of revolution, which has been confirmed by all revolutions and especially by all three Russian revolutions in the twentieth century, is as follows: for a revolution to take place it is not enough for the exploited and oppressed masses to realise the impossibility of living in the old way, and demand changes; for a revolution to take place it is essential that the exploiters should not be able to live and rule in the old way. It is only when the “lower classes” do not want to live in the old way and the “upper classes” cannot carry on in the old way that the revolution can triumph. This truth can be expressed in other words: revolution is impossible without a nation-wide crisis (affecting both the exploited and the exploiters). It follows that, for a revolution to take place, it is essential, first, that a majority of the workers (or at least a majority of the class-conscious, thinking, and politically active workers) should fully realise that revolution is necessary, and that they should be prepared to die for it; second, that the ruling classes should be going through a governmental crisis, which draws even the most backward masses into politics (symptomatic of any genuine revolution is a rapid, tenfold and even hundredfold increase in the size of the working and oppressed masses—hitherto apathetic—who are capable of waging the political struggle), weakens the government, and makes it possible for the revolutionaries to rapidly overthrow it.}}</ref>

Voluntarism vs. [[Determinism]]''':''' Voluntarism stands opposed to mechanical determinism, but [[Marxism]] rejects both extremes. [[Historical materialism]] recognizes that while material conditions set the parameters for historical development, human agency, conscious, organized struggle, is necessary to realize revolutionary change. The famous Marxist formulation is that "people make history, but not under conditions of their own choosing."<ref>{{Web citation|author=Karl Marx|newspaper=Marxists.org|title=The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte|date=1852|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm|quote=en make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.}}</ref>

== Critique from Historical Materialism ==
Marxism rejects voluntarism as a form of idealism. While [[Subjectivism|subjective]] factors (consciousness, organization, will) are important, they cannot substitute for objective material conditions. Revolutionary movements that ignore material conditions and class development inevitably fail or degenerate into [[adventurism]].

At the same time, Marxism also rejects mechanical materialism, which denies the role of human agency entirely. The [[Dialectical materialism|dialectical materialist]] position is that subjective and objective factors interact: material conditions create the possibility for revolutionary change, but organized, conscious human action is required to actualize that possibility.

== References ==
<references />

Voluntarism - Revision history

Comrade Kiwi at 05:18, 21 October 2025

Comrade Kiwi at 05:15, 21 October 2025

Comrade Kiwi: Done with the voluntarism article, simultaneously doing the mechanical materialism article alongside it, might add more critique later.