Volition at James’s Principles of Psychology

“Will is a Relation Between the Mind and its 'Ideas’ (James, W).”

This is a one page quick reference to ‘volition’ at James’s book “The Principles of Psychology”, 1890. James’s approach to the matter of the subject at the section ‘Will’ is dispalyed with allusions. A three pages relatively extensive reference that I have extracted follows for the interested.

The term ‘mind’[1] is the name used to express the functional abilities of our organ ‘brain’[2]. Mind’s functional abilities can be grouped as ‘cognition[3]’, ‘affection[4]’, ‘conation[5] (volition[6])’.

Cognition deals with logical mathematical and other sorts of knowledge processing including the gathering, storing and handling of it. Affection is about emotions and how we percieve them as feelings.

Volition is the scientific word used for ‘will’. Volition is the power of choosing. The word ‘volition’ has much more implications than its daily counterpart ‘will’. Besides its functional meaning in the mind volition may be mapped to certain parts of the human brain such as PFC-Pre Frontal Cortex and Anterior Cingulate.

Every action is preceded by a stimulus or an idea. Feelings may change to a desire to do something and hence form a stimulus. ‘but if we believe that the end is in our power’ namely we have a chance to achieve our goal, ‘we will that the desired feeling, having, or doing shall be real;’ we execute our will and reach our aim as a result.

When the will is not healthy: ‘. The action may follow the stimulus or idea too rapidly, leaving no time for the arousal of restraining associates - we then have a precipitate will . Or, although the associates may come, the ratio which the impulsive and inhibitive forces normally bear to each other may be distorted, and we then have a will which is perverse’. ... Briefly, we may call them respectively the obstructed and the explosive will .

The Explosive Will.
‘There is a normal type of character, for example, in which impulses seem to discharge so promptly into movements that inhibitions get no time to arise.’

‘Exhaustion of nervous energy always lessens the inhibitory power.’
‘'Irritability' is one manifestation of this. Many persons have so small a stock of reserve brain-power - that most valuable of all brain-qualities - that it is soon used up, and you see at once that they lose their power of self-control very soon.’
...
The Obstructed Will.
‘In striking contrast with the cases in which inhibition is insufficient or impulsion in excess are those in which impulsion is insufficient or inhibition of in excess.’

Will is a Relation Between the Mind and its 'Ideas.'
‘... consider the conditions which make ideas prevail in the mind.’
With the prevalence, once there as a fact, of the motive idea the psychology of volition properly stops.’

‘... The willing terminates with the prevalence of the idea; and whether the act then follows or not is a matter quite immaterial, so far as the willing itself goes. I will to write, and the act follows.’

‘We have now brought things to a point at which we see that attention with effort is all that any case of volition implies. The essential achievement of the will, in short, when it is most 'voluntary,' is to ATTEND to a difficult object and hold it fast before the mind . The so-doing is the fiat ; and it is a mere physiological incident that when the object is thus attended to, immediate motor consequences should ensue.’

The Feeling of Effort.
‘... consciousness ... is in its nature impulsive ...(but-ARS) it must be sufficiently intense... ‘

Effort of attention is thus the essential phenomenon of will...
‘ The difficulty is mental; it is that of getting the idea of the wise action to stay before our mind at all.
The strong-willed man, however, is the man who hears the still small voice unflinchingly, and who, when the death-bringing consideration comes, looks at its face, consents to its presence, clings to it, affirms it, and holds it fast, in spite of the host of exciting mental images which rise in revolt against it and would expel it from the mind.’

[1] mind n. 1. The human consciousness that originates in the brain and is manifested especially in thought, perception, emotion, will, memory, and imagination(Free Dictionary).

[2] brain n.1. a. The portion of the vertebrate central nervous system that is enclosed within the cranium, continuous with the spinal cord, and composed of gray matter and white matter. It is the primary center for the regulation and control of bodily activities, receiving and interpreting sensory impulses, and transmitting information to the muscles and body organs. It is also the seat of consciousness, thought, memory, and emotion.

[3] cog•ni•tion n. 1. The mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment. 2. That which comes to be known, as through perception, reasoning, or intuition; knowledge.

[4] af•fec•tion n.1. A tender feeling toward another; fondness. See Synonyms at love.
2. Feeling or emotion. Often used in the plural: an unbalanced state of affections. 3. A disposition to feel, do, or say; a propensity.

[5] co•na•tion n. Psychology The aspect of mental processes or behavior directed toward action or change and including impulse, desire, volition, and striving.

[6] vo•li•tion n. 1. The act or an instance of making a conscious choice or decision. 2. A conscious choice or decision. 3. The power or faculty of choosing; the will.


James, W, “The Principles of Psychology”, 1890

The Principles of Psychology, by William James
Chapter 261
Will.
Desire, wish, will, are states of mind which everyone knows, and which no definition can make plainer. We desire to feel, to have, to do, all sorts of things which at the moment are not felt, had, or done. If with the desire there goes a sense that attainment is not possible, we simply wish ; but if we believe that the end is in our power, we will that the desired feeling, having, or doing shall be real; and real it presently becomes, either immediately upon the willing or after certain preliminaries have been fulfilled.

The Feeling of Effort.
... consciousness ... is in its nature impulsive ...(but-ARS) it must be sufficiently intense . Now there are remarkable differences in the power of different sorts of consciousness to excite movement. The intensity of some feelings is practically apt to be below the discharging point, whilst that of others is apt to be above it. By practically apt, I mean apt under ordinary circumstances.
...
Healthiness of will moreover requires a certain amount of complication in the process which precedes the fiat or the act. Each stimulus or idea, at the same time that it wakens its own impulse, must arouse other ideas (associated and consequential) with their impulses, and action must follow, neither too slowly nor too rapidly, as the resultant of all the forces thus engaged. Even when the decision is very prompt, there is thus a sort of preliminary survey of the field and a vision of which course is best before the fiat comes. And where the will is healthy, the vision must be right (i.e., the motives must be on the whole in a normal or not too unusual ratio to each other), and the action must obey the vision's lead .

Unhealthiness of will may thus come about in many ways . The action may follow the stimulus or idea too rapidly, leaving no time for the arousal of restraining associates - we then have a precipitate will . Or, although the associates may come, the ratio which the impulsive and inhibitive forces normally bear to each other may be distorted, and we then have a will which is perverse . The perversity, in turn, may be due to either of many causes - too much intensity, or too little, here; too much or too little inertia there; or elsewhere too much or too little inhibitory power. If we compare the outward symptoms of perversity together, they fall into two groups , in one of which normal actions are impossible, and in the other abnormal ones are irrepressible. Briefly, we may call them respectively the obstructed and the explosive will .

It must be kept in mind, however, that since the resultant action is always due to the ratio between the obstructive and the explosive forces which are present, we never can tell by the mere outward symptoms to what elementary cause the perversion of a man's will may be due, whether to an increase of one component or a diminution of the other. One may grow explosive as readily by losing the usual brakes as by getting up more of the impulsive steam; and one may find things impossible as well through the enfeeblement of the original desire as through the advent of new lions in the path. As Dr. Clouston says, "the driver may be so weak that he cannot control well-broken horses, or the horses may be so hard-mouthed that no driver can pull them up." In some concrete cases (whether of explosive or of obstructed will) it is difficult to tell whether the trouble is due to inhibitory or to impulsive change. Generally, however, we can make a plausible guess at the truth.
...
The Explosive Will.
There is a normal type of character, for example, in which impulses seem to discharge so promptly into movements that inhibitions get no time to arise. These are the 'dare-devil' and 'mercurial' temperaments, overflowing with animation, and fizzling with talk, which are so common in the Latin and Celtic races, and with which the cold-blooded and long-headed English character forms so marked a contrast. Monkeys these people seem to us, whilst we seem to them reptilian.
...
But the judicious fellow all the while may have all these possibilities and more besides, ready to break out in the same or even a more violent way, if only the brakes were taken off. It is the absence of scruples, of consequences, of considerations, the extraordinary simplification of each moment's mental outlook, that gives to the explosive individual such motor energy and ease; it need not be the greater intensity of any of his passions, motives, or thoughts.
...
Exhaustion of nervous energy always lessens the inhibitory power.
'Irritability' is one manifestation of this. Many persons have so small a stock of reserve brain-power - that most valuable of all brain-qualities - that it is soon used up, and you see at once that they lose their power of self-control very soon.
...
The Obstructed Will.
In striking contrast with the cases in which inhibition is insufficient or impulsion in excess are those in which impulsion is insufficient or inhibition of in excess.
...
Will is a Relation Between the Mind and its 'Ideas.'
... consider the conditions which make ideas prevail in the mind.
With the prevalence, once there as a fact, of the motive idea the psychology of volition properly stops. ... The willing terminates with the prevalence of the idea; and whether the act then follows or not is a matter quite immaterial, so far as the willing itself goes. I will to write, and the act follows.
We have now brought things to a point at which we see that attention with effort is all that any case of volition implies. The essential achievement of the will, in short, when it is most 'voluntary,' is to ATTEND to a difficult object and hold it fast before the mind . The so-doing is the fiat ; and it is a mere physiological incident that when the object is thus attended to, immediate motor consequences should ensue.

Effort of attention is thus the essential phenomenon of will...
The difficulty is mental; it is that of getting the idea of the wise action to stay before our mind at all.
The strong-willed man, however, is the man who hears the still small voice unflinchingly, and who, when the death-bringing consideration comes, looks at its face, consents to its presence, clings to it, affirms it, and holds it fast, in spite of the host of exciting mental images which rise in revolt against it and would expel it from the mind.
The idea to be consented to must be kept from flickering and going out. It must be held steadily before the mind until it fills the mind. Such filling of the mind by an idea, with its congruous associates, is consent to the idea and to the fact which the idea represents.
...
To sum it all up in a word, the terminus of the psychological process in volition, the point to which the will is directly applied, is always an idea . There are at all times some ideas from which we shy away like frightened horses the moment we get a glimpse of their forbidding profile upon the threshold of our thought. The only resistance which our will can possibly experience is the resistance which such an idea offers to being attended to at all . To attend to it is the volitional act, and the only inward volitional act which we ever perform.