According to theological voluntarism, everything obeys the will of God.
Voluntarism is the theory of philosophy that gives preponderance to the will over understanding or reason . This is just one of the four meanings that the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) recognizes for this term.
Voluntarism, in this framework, considers that will is the primary value of an individual, rejecting the existence of objective laws in society and nature. It can be said that it gives greater importance to emotions and feelings than to rationality .
in theology
In the field of theology , voluntarism is the doctrine that maintains that everything obeys the will of God . According to this position, God 's decisions are always fair and human beings identify with this will.
Saint Augustine of Hippo , commonly called Saint Augustine , made important contributions to this concept through his studies in philosophy and theology, many of which he put into writing. According to him, philosophy is the love of wisdom , but we should not pursue it only through the intellect but with the entire soul . It is necessary to point out that Augustine does not place the will above the intellect, at least such subordination cannot be interpreted through his theory. In his works, God is intelligence, the "Father of Truth."
Augustine adds that through thought we come to the conclusion that we need God's help as a path in which we receive the light of the Sun that our soul needs . Although he accepts that human beings fulfill the will of God, he maintains that faith arises from intelligence, so that in principle there is reasoning: I understand in order to believe .
Another important figure for theological voluntarism was John Duns Scotus , born in 1266 and beatified in 1993 by Pope John Paul II. His philosophical studies have a much clearer and more direct voluntarist tendency than those of Augustine. He points out that only the will is the root of his desires, which dominates all the other faculties. Furthermore, it presents it as a source of the greatest virtue of the human being: charity. In short, it states that it has a value greater than that of intelligence.
Political voluntarism
The tendency that takes will as the fundamental element for the development of a project is known as political voluntarism . In some cases, the will of the people is appealed to as the driving force behind social changes.
According to voluntarism, society must be organized based on the voluntary agreement of citizens . Therefore, it rejects the coercive power of the State and that the monopoly of violence is in the hands of the state apparatus.
This term came to the realm of politics through the British politician and philosopher Auberon Herbert , born in 1838. His training was influenced by the polymath Herbert Spencer , for many, the father of social Darwinism . Despite not subscribing to anarchism , he maintained a strong exchange with its defenders, especially with the American theorist Benjamin Tucker .
The latter opposed the criticism of detractors, according to whom an anarchist government was synonymous with the absence of government. It was based on the fact that voluntarism also leads to order , opens the doors to freedom and does not promote crime, all this on a decentralized and optional basis.
Political voluntarism prioritizes the will of the people.
irrational judgment
Voluntarism, finally, is the attitude adopted by those who establish conjectures and define their perspectives according to their own desires and not by analyzing real possibilities . This voluntarism can be considered a cognitive bias : a distortion that leads to an irrational judgment.