The Will and Human Action: From Antiquity to the Present Day (London Studies in the History of Philosophy, V. 4)

What is the will? And what is its relation to human action? Throughout history, philosophers have been fascinated by the idea of 'the will': the source of the drive that motivates human beings to act. However, there has never been a clear consensus as to what the will is and how it relates to human action. Some philosophers have taken the will to be based firmly in reason and rational choice, and some have seen it as purely self-determined. Others have replaced the idea of the human will with a more general drive uniting humans and the rest of nature, living and non-living. This collection of nine specially commissioned papers trace the formulation and treatment of the problem of the will from ancient philosophy through the scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages, to modern philosophy, and right up to contemporary theories. Philosophers discussed include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Hobbes, Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

What is the will? And what is its relation to human action?
Throughout history, philosophers have been fascinated by the idea of 'the will': the source of the drive that motivates human beings to act. However, there has never been a clear consensus as to what the will is and how it relates to human action. Some philosophers have taken the will to be based firmly in reason and rational choice, and some have seen it as purely self-determined. Others have replaced the idea of the human will with a more general drive uniting humans and the rest of nature, living and non-living.
This collection of nine specially commissioned papers trace the formulation and treatment of the problem of the will from ancient philosophy through the scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages, to modern philosophy, and right up to contemporary theories. Philosophers discussed include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Hobbes, Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

"Throughout history, philosophers have frequently turned to theories of the will in order to characterize and clarify human action. The notion of the will has been central to many accounts of the human self and the relationship of human beings to nature. However, there is no clear consensus about what the will actually involves." "This collection of nine specially commissioned papers trace the formulation and treatment of the problem of the will from ancient philosophy through the scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages, to modern philosophy and right up to contemporary theories. Philosophers discussed include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Hobbes, Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche."--Résumé de l'éditeur "Throughout history, philosophers have frequently turned to theories of the will in order to characterize and clarify human action. The notion of the will has been central to many accounts of the human self and the relationship of human beings to nature. However, there is no clear consensus about what the will actually involves." "This collection of nine specially commissioned papers trace the formulation and treatment of the problem of the will from ancient philosophy through the scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages, to modern philosophy and right up to contemporary theories. Philosophers discussed include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Hobbes, Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche."--Jacket. The Will and Human Action Contents Contributors Introduction 1 The concept of the will from Plato to Maximus the Confessor 2 Aristotle, the Stoics and the will 3 Intellect with a (divine) purpose 4 The effect of the will on judgement 5 Moral psychology before 1277 6 Suarez, Hobbes and the scholastic tradition in action theory 7 Kant on the will 8 Nietzsche and Schopenhauer 9 Theories of the bodily will Index