Consciousness: The Will vs. the Intellect

Discuss any topics related to metaphysics (the philosophical study of the principles of reality) or epistemology (the philosophical study of knowledge) in this forum.
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Consul
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Re: Consciousness: The Will vs. the Intellect

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Belindi wrote: June 12th, 2022, 4:54 amI am a voluntarist because nobody does anything that they feel or think is not good or least bad. Conatus is peculiar to living entities and no living entity can endure minus conatus. Without conatus the living entity is deceased.

Reason is engaged to serve conatus, by intellectual animals. Intellectual animals are animals that can learn from experience. Reason is acquired via natural selection.
Is conation the same as volition; and if not, what is the difference?

The Oxford Dictionary of Psychology defines "conation" as "the psychological processes involved in purposeful action".
This is not very informative. The Oxford Latin Dictionary defines the noun "conatus" as "an effort to accomplish a desired end, endeavour, exertion, attempt" and as "an attempted action, enterprise, design". The Oxford Dictionary of English defines "conation" in the philosophical sense as "the faculty of volition and desire; also (with a. and pl.) the product of this faculty"; so here conation is said to be the same as volition and desire, which means that volition and desire are the same too. But are these three things really identical? If conation is the making of an attempt or effort to do or get something, then it seems to be same as trying; but trying to do or get something is not the same as wanting to do or get something. So volition is different from and prior to conation, isn't it? Is conation = volition+exertion?
"We may philosophize well or ill, but we must philosophize." – Wilfrid Sellars
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Re: Consciousness: The Will vs. the Intellect

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Consul wrote: June 11th, 2022, 8:29 pm I've been wondering if willing or wanting is ever a subjective experience (an experiential, phenomenally conscious event or act) like feeling and thinking. For example, there is a book I want to buy; and thinking or innerly saying "I want to buy this book", and also imagining myself buying that book are certainly experiences. So are any (pleasant) feelings associated with my imagining that I buy the book, have, and read it. But what about the wanting (itself)? (The conscious thought-act or silent speech-act "I want to buy this book" is at most an expression or manifestation of my wanting rather than my wanting itself.) If it is anything at all, is the wanting itself anything more than a nonexperiential (phenomenally nonconscious) disposition or inclination to some form of behavior or action (such as tending to buy a book)? Is there a genuine and distinctive phenomenology of volition (wanting or willing)? Is there something it is like for me to want (or will) something?

(The same question can be asked about desires, wishes, and intentions: Are they ever subjective experiences with a genuine and distinctive phenomenal character, or just objective dispositions or inclinations to actions?)

Here are definitions of the noun "will" that I found in the Oxford English Dictionary:

WILL
=def
* Desire, wish, longing; liking, inclination, disposition (to do something)

* A desire or wish as expressed in a request; hence (contextually) the expression of a wish, a request, petition (sometimes passing into the sense 'a command')

* An inclination to do something, as contrasted with power or opportunity

* Intention, intent, purpose, determination

* The action of willing or choosing to do something; the movement or attitude of the mind which is directed with conscious intention to (and, normally, issues immediately in) some action, physical or mental; volition.

* The power or capacity of willing; that faculty or function which is directed to conscious and intentional action; power of choice in regard to action.

* Intention or determination that something shall be done by another or others, or shall happen to take place; (contextually) an expression or embodiment of such intention or determination, an order, command, injunction

* Consent, acquiescence, permission, favour, good will
Consul!

Thank you for taking the time to dig a little deeper... . Although when this question is asked (Will v. Intellect) much like Belindi, I tend to default to Voluntarism, that is, if someone said that I must choose one or the other. In other words, much like other features and qualities of conscious states and cognitive abilities, it seems analogous to right-brain/left-brain cognition where there is an ' illogical ' mix of both feeling and logic coming together to form an inseparable homogenized/emulsified product of thinking.

However, as it relates the metaphysics (the nature of a thing-in-itself) of the existence of consciousness, your point about Subjectivity is an important one. Initially, we could say that the Will is primarily a phenomena associated with subject's (although Schopenhauer thought everything was the Will/propagation, genetically coded emergence and cosmological information/energy). And although I would not take any exception to his philosophical theories about that, the subjective nature of the will can be more readily experienced by each individual. As such, we have direct knowledge of this feeling or impulse, as abstract, or even benign or esoteric as it may feel to us.

Through self-awareness itself, along with volition (the abilities to choose things and make decisions) we obviously become somewhat aware of that impulse, in this case, the impulse simply to be. That impulse is the CAUSE for, I'll submit, ALL human behavior. Self-awareness, sentience (the need to be happy) and volition are the manifestations of that which is beyond mere instinct to act. Again, if I had to choose one or the other there, I'd pick the Will as taking primacy... .

Overall, with respect to its metaphysical qualities (the Will), I also tend to default to Kantian metaphysics in that the Will itself is a fixed, innate or intrinsic thing-in-itself that is not only existential (it just is/everyone experiences it) but is something a priori that gives rise to other parts of cognition. For instance, when someone say's I have a gut feeling about a some thing (intellectually), while shear experience may have contributed that feeling, we also have a natural feeling that causes that too. Meaning, our sense of wonderment causes us to wonder about things like why we are here, contemplation of cosmological phenomena, the concept of God, so on and so forth.... . Or, existentially, my feeling to want to live and not die, insatiable need for purpose, etc..

Said another way, we know that philosophy itself, does not confer any real Darwinian survival advantages. Wondering about the why's of existence (not to mention what, where, how and when) cause and effect, the relationship between mind and matter, time, consciousness and so on, is a metaphysical exercise assigned only to us... .

Please feel free to share your thoughts or critique mine.
“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.” "Spooky Action at a Distance"
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Consul
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Re: Consciousness: The Will vs. the Intellect

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Consul wrote: June 12th, 2022, 6:25 pm …The Oxford Latin Dictionary defines the noun "conatus" as "an effort to accomplish a desired end, endeavour, exertion, attempt" and as "an attempted action, enterprise, design". …
The Georges Latin-German dictionary mentions "das Drücken beim Stuhlgang" ("the pressing at stool (when defecating)") as one meaning of "conatio".
"We may philosophize well or ill, but we must philosophize." – Wilfrid Sellars
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Re: Consciousness: The Will vs. the Intellect

Post by Belindi »

Consul wrote: June 12th, 2022, 6:25 pm
Belindi wrote: June 12th, 2022, 4:54 amI am a voluntarist because nobody does anything that they feel or think is not good or least bad. Conatus is peculiar to living entities and no living entity can endure minus conatus. Without conatus the living entity is deceased.

Reason is engaged to serve conatus, by intellectual animals. Intellectual animals are animals that can learn from experience. Reason is acquired via natural selection.
Is conation the same as volition; and if not, what is the difference?

The Oxford Dictionary of Psychology defines "conation" as "the psychological processes involved in purposeful action".
This is not very informative. The Oxford Latin Dictionary defines the noun "conatus" as "an effort to accomplish a desired end, endeavour, exertion, attempt" and as "an attempted action, enterprise, design". The Oxford Dictionary of English defines "conation" in the philosophical sense as "the faculty of volition and desire; also (with a. and pl.) the product of this faculty"; so here conation is said to be the same as volition and desire, which means that volition and desire are the same too. But are these three things really identical? If conation is the making of an attempt or effort to do or get something, then it seems to be same as trying; but trying to do or get something is not the same as wanting to do or get something. So volition is different from and prior to conation, isn't it? Is conation = volition+exertion?
The more that reason enters into what I want to do the more my conatus is purposeful. I identify conatus with id.(Freud)
There is little value or usefulness in identifying conatus with volition.Volition is a complex: conatus is elementary . For an example and evidence a human may behave very voluntarily whereas a solitary bee's life is sustained largely by her conatus. Rats are eager to learn from experience, perhaps not to the same degree as are humans, but more so (I guess) than solitary bees.
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