VOLUNTARISM • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Voluntarism

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noun

Voluntarism n.

(Philosophy) Any theory which conceives will to be the dominant factor in experience or in the constitution of the world; contrasted with intellectualism. Schopenhauer and Fichte are typical exponents of the two types of metaphysical voluntarism, Schopenhauer teaching that the evolution of the universe is the activity of a blind and irrational will, Fichte holding that the intelligent activity of the ego is the fundamental fact of reality.

The principle or practice of depending on volunteers to support institutions or perform some desired action.

A political philosophy opposed to dependence on governmental action or support for social services that might be performed by private groups.

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Etymology of 'Voluntarism'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Voluntarism" Quotes from Famous Books

... have aimed at exhaustiveness, and imagined that if it could be attained, inductive reasoning would be rendered sound, and not impossible. Their ideal 'cause' was the totality of reality, identified with its 'effect,' in a meaningless tautology. Nothing but voluntarism can enable logicians to see that our actual procedure in knowing is the reverse of this, that causal explanation is the analysis of a continuum, and that 'phenomena,' 'events,' 'effects,' and 'causes' are all creations of our selective attention; ...

— Pragmatism • D.L. Murray