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"
― Albert Einstein