Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- General introduction
- Chronology of Tönnies's life and career
- A note on the texts and further reading
- A note on translation
- Glossary
- COMMUNITY AND CIVIL SOCIETY
- Book One A general classification of key ideas
- Book Two Natural will and rational will
- Section 1 The forms of human will
- Section 2 Explanation of the dichotomy
- Section 3 Practical implications
- Book Three The sociological basis of natural law
- Appendix: Conclusions and future prospects
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Section 1 - The forms of human will
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- General introduction
- Chronology of Tönnies's life and career
- A note on the texts and further reading
- A note on translation
- Glossary
- COMMUNITY AND CIVIL SOCIETY
- Book One A general classification of key ideas
- Book Two Natural will and rational will
- Section 1 The forms of human will
- Section 2 Explanation of the dichotomy
- Section 3 Practical implications
- Book Three The sociological basis of natural law
- Appendix: Conclusions and future prospects
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Summary
The whole thrust of this treatise demands a correct grasp of the concept of human will, which is to be understood in a twofold sense. All intellectual activity may be characterised as ‘human’ by the fact that it involves thinking; but I shall distinguish between ‘will’ that includes some element of thought, and ‘will’ that is merely a part of the thought process. Each represents a coherent whole which integrates many different kinds of feelings, instincts and desires. In the first case the integration must be seen as natural and spontaneous, whereas in the second it is abstract and artificial. The first sort of human will is what I shall call Wesenwille [i.e. ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ or ‘essential’ will]; the second I shall call Kürwille [i.e. will that involves calculation, arbitrary freedom and rational choice].
Natural or essential will is the psychological equivalent of the human body; it is the unifying principle of life, conceived of as the pattern of material reality to which thinking itself belongs (quatenus sub attributo cogitationis concipitur). It involves ‘thinking’ in the sense that the organism contains certain cells in the forebrain which, when stimulated, cause the psychological activities that we interpret as thought (of which the speech faculty is undoubtedly a part).
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- Information
- Tönnies: Community and Civil Society , pp. 95 - 131Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001