Voluntarism and Volutin

VOLUNTARISM (from Latin voluntas—will), a psychological doctrine regarding the predominant significance of volitional processes in the mental life and behavior of man. One must distinguish between psychological and metaphysical voluntarism. The latter, as developed in the teachings of Schopenhauer or in the philosophy of Bergson, is not a scientific but a metaphysical theory, which sees in the will the ultimate foundation and true essence of being (Schopenhauer) or reduces biological evolution to a 'vital (life) impulse' as the primary cause (Bergson). Elements of idealistic metaphysics also penetrate the theories of psychological voluntarism. In particular, voluntarism, as developed in the teachings of Wundt, represents a similar inseparable mixture of empirical-psychological and metaphysical-idealistic elements. As a psychological system, voluntarism is contrasted with intellectualism. The latter considers volitional processes not as primary elements of the psyche and behavior, but as a complex formation arising at a certain stage of development and consisting of intellectual and emotional processes; intellectualism thus denies the independence and primacy of the will as a special class of mental processes, viewing a typical volitional act as an association between a motive and an action. Voluntarism, on the contrary, sees in the will the basic and primary principle of mental life and takes intellectual processes to be derivative and secondary. In some authors, voluntarism is not connected with the recognition of the elementarity and primacy of volitional acts; they see in the will a complex process consisting of elements of feelings, sensations, and representations, and therefore typical for the entire mental life, the complexity and activity of which are thereby brought to the foreground (Wundt). From the point of view of objective psychology, psychological voluntarism confuses two essentially deeply different scientific problems, thanks to which the question becomes insoluble by scientific means and tends in subjective psychology toward metaphysics. The first problem, which voluntarism solves partly correctly, consists in clarifying the active, energetic character of all strictly neuro-psychic processes, in understanding psychological functions as a special kind of active adaptation of the organism and personality. In this sense, the assertions of voluntarism are completely fair from a scientific point of view, if this activity is understood biologically and if one takes as its primary forms instinctive activity, the satisfaction of organic drives and needs, etc. In this sense, voluntarism is undoubtedly correct. The other, essentially distinct, problem consists in clarifying the psychological nature of complex volitional processes in the proper sense of the word (such as, for example, processes of volitional attention, motivated choice, voluntary movement, etc.). This second problem is posed and solved in the theories of psychological voluntarism incorrectly, on the basis of idealistic premises about the freedom of the will.

L. Vygotsky. VOLUTIN (syn. metachromatic granules), a term serving to designate granules and clumps in the protoplasm of cells of lower plants and animals. In a living cell, volutin is colorless and strongly refracts light. Volutin is soluble in water (weakly) and in alkalis (easily), and insoluble in acids and alcohol. Volutin is undoubtedly a substance of a reserve character. Attempts to prove its enzymatic nature have been unsuccessful, and the question of the nature of volutin remains controversial. Microscopic-chemical studies of recent times lead to the conception of volutin as a body of carbohydrate-protein nature. Volutin has been found in the majority of lower plants (bacteria, algae, fungi) and animals (flagellates—e.g., trypanosomes, rhizopods, and, apparently, in the majority of sporozoans). See also Babes-Ernst granules.