[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.
1615. Jackson, 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.
1640. Bp. Reynolds, Passions, xvii. 180. They are onely Velleities and not Volitions: halfe and broken wishes, not whole desires.
1678. Cudworth, 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.
1740. Cheyne, Regimen, 314. We may have vehement Willings, Longings, Volitions and Velleities.
1777. Priestley, Phil. Necessity, i. 6. A determination to suspend a volition is, in fact, another volition. Ibid. (1777), Matt. & Spir. (1782), I. Introd. p. v. Every human volition is subject to certain fixed laws.
1830. R. 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.
1844. Mrs. Browning, Drama of Exile, 1190. Grant me such pardoning grace as can go forth From clean volitions toward a spotted will.
1864. Bowen, 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. 1854. Emerson, 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.
1654. Warren, Unbelievers, 145. Gods gracious volitions towards them.
1675. Baxter, Cath. Theol., II. II. 27. I doubt all sides are over temerarious in their distribution of Gods Decrees and Volitions.
1700. C. 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.
1666. Jer. 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.
a. 1676. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. ii. (1677), 58. The Acts of this Faculty are generally divided into Volition, Nolition, and Suspension.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., 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.
1713. Berkeley, Hylas & Phil., I. Wks. 1871, I. 287. By the motion of my hand, which was consequent upon my volition.
1751. Johnson, 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.
1794. Godwin, Caleb Williams, 231. I shifted my situation with a speed that seemed too swift for volition.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxix. In this answer the citizen saw something not quite consistent with his own perfect freedom of volition.
1843. Gladstone, Glean. (1879), V. 14. Do not let us suppose that … we are contemplating an affair of mere individual volition.
1874. Sayce, 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.
1738. Gentl. 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.
1764. Foote, Patron, II. Wks. 1799, I. 345. To this cabinet volition, or will, has a key.
1794. Paley, Evid., III. viii. (1800), 412. The individuality of a mind … or its volition, that is, its power of originating motion.
1839. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. I. St. Gengulphus. For Saints, e’en when dead, still retain their volition.
1848. Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850), 46. That sort of angel-beings supposed to have a volition of their own.
1895. G. Macdonald, Lilith, xx. Despair restored my volition,… I ran and overtook her.
c. Will-power.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, I. ii. The four votes … had been increased, by his intense volition and unsparing means, to ten. Ibid. (1847), Tancred, I. ii. Montacute … acted upon a stronger volition than his own.
Hence Volitionless a., lacking volition.
1881. J. Owen, Even. w. Skeptics, x. 11. 415. The volitionless will of the former [sc. Schopenhauer] is as instinct with purpose … as the most personal conception of Deity ever evolved from the brain of a theologian.
