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volition|vəˈlɪʃən|
[a. F. volition (16th c., = Sp. volicion, Pg. volição, It. volizione), ad. med.L. volitiōn-, volitio (Diefenbach), noun of action f. L. volo I wish, will.]
1. With a and pl. An act of willing or resolving; a decision or choice made after due consideration or deliberation; a resolution or determination.
1615Jackson Creed iv. vi. §4. Wks. III. 61 That such acts, again, as they appropriate to the will, and call volitions, are essentially and formally intellections, is most evident. 1640Bp. Reynolds Passions xvii. 180 They are onely Velleities and not Volitions: halfe and broken wishes, not whole desires. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. v. 851 They suppose..humane volitions..to be mechanically caused and necessitated from those effluvious images of Bodies, coming in upon the willers. 1740Cheyne Regimen 314 We may have vehement Willings, Longings, Volitions and Velleities. 1777Priestley Phil. Necessity i. 6 A determination to suspend a volition is, in fact, another volition. 1777― Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. Introd. p. v, Every human volition is subject to certain fixed laws. 1830R. Knox Béclard's Anat. 9 When the animal has received a sensation, and this sensation determines a volition in it, it is by the nerves that the volition is transmitted to the muscles. 1844Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile 1190 Grant me such pardoning grace as can go forth From clean volitions toward a spotted will. 1864Bowen Logic ix. 300 No one can tell how a mere volition moves the arm. Ibid. 310 Unless some new volition of a power capable of controlling the universe should supervene.
fig.1854Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims, Poet. & Imag. Wks. (Bohn) III. 148 Good poetry..heightens every species of force in nature by giving it a human volition.
b. Used with reference to the will of God.
1654Warren Unbelievers 145 Gods gracious volitions towards them. 1675Baxter Cath. Theol. ii. ii. 27, I doubt all sides are over temerarious in their distribution of Gods Decrees and Volitions. 1700C. Nesse Antid. Armin. (1827) 26 We..make the volitions of God to come behind the created and temporary volitions of man.
2. The action of consciously willing or resolving; the making of a definite choice or decision with regard to a course of action; exercise of the will.
Very common from c 1830.
1660Jer. Taylor Ductor iv. i. rule 3 §8 The external act does superadd new obligations beyond those which are consequent to the mere internal volition, though never so perfect and complete. a1676Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. ii. (1677) 58 The Acts of this Faculty are generally divided into Volition, Nolition, and Suspension. 1690Locke Hum. Underst. ii. xxi §5 This Power the Mind has to prefer the Consideration of any Idea;..the actual preferring one to another, is that we call Volition, or Willing. 1713Berkeley Hylas & Phil. i. Wks. 1871 I. 287 By the motion of my hand, which was consequent upon my volition. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 166 ⁋12 That when we find worth faintly shooting in the shades of obscurity, we may let in light and sunshine upon it, and ripen barren volition into efficacy and power. 1794Godwin Caleb Williams 231, I shifted my situation with a speed that seemed too swift for volition. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xxix, In this answer the citizen saw something not quite consistent with his own perfect freedom of volition. 1843Gladstone Glean. (1879) V. 14 Do not let us suppose that..we are contemplating an affair of mere individual volition. 1874Sayce Compar. Philol. i. 37 Human volition is the result of so many obscure and complicated causes, as to appear at first sight mere caprice and chance.
b. The power or faculty of willing.
1738Gentl. Mag. VIII. 22/2 The Traveller, as he hath Volition, may will to go to the Right or the Left before he comes to the Guide-Post. 1764Foote Patron ii. Wks. 1799 I. 345 To this cabinet volition, or will, has a key. 1794Paley Evid. iii. viii. (1800) 412 The individuality of a mind..or its volition, that is, its power of originating motion. 1839Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. St. Gengulphus, For Saints, e'en when dead, still retain their volition. 1848A. Jameson Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850) 46 That sort of angel-beings supposed to have a volition of their own. 1895G. Macdonald Lilith xx, Despair restored my volition,..I ran and overtook her.
c. Will-power.
1844Disraeli Coningsby i. ii, The four votes..had been increased, by his intense volition and unsparing means, to ten. 1847― Tancred i. ii, Montacute..acted upon a stronger volition than his own.
Hence voˈlitionless a., lacking volition.
1881J. Owen Even. w. Skeptics x. II. 415 The volitionless will of the former [sc. Schopenhauer] is an instinct with purpose..as the most personal conception of Deity ever evolved from the brain of a theologian. |