29 IRRATIONALISM AND VOLUNTARISM

Irrationalism is an idealistic trend in philosophy that contrasts non-logical (“supramental") methods to scientific-logical methods of comprehending the laws of nature formation and social development.

In contrast to rationalism - trends in the theory of comprehension, formed on the predominance of reason, thinking as a criterion of truth (B. Spinoza, R. Descartes, G. Leibniz, and others) - irrationalism accepted the laws of thinking, removal from accepted norms and rules of behavior, the dependence of the conditions of human activity on the impact of natural forces as the causes of certain human manifestations that cannot be rationally explained.

The followers of the idealistic philosophical trend (subjective and objective idealism) accepted irrationalism independently of the consciousness of the existence of matter. Bowing to religious beliefs, they thought impossible the expedient comprehension of natural phenomena.

Voluntarism is an idealistic direction, interpreting the importance of will as a supernatural origin. In idealistic psychology, voluntarism is a theory of the dominance of volitional processes over reason, where the first value is given to the leading value in mental life, and the second, the second, dependent value.

Materialistic principles are based on the fact that the will is manifested in the intentional actions and actions of a person related to overcoming external or internal barriers to the goals set.

The most famous representatives of voluntarism.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) is a German idealist philosopher who rejects scientific insight and historical progress. Voluntarism and “hyperbolization of the subject” became one of the sources of the emergence of the fascist worldview in Germany.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) - German philosopher, irrationalist and voluntarist. He was also the ideological predecessor of fascism, preaching the cult of "strong personality" (superman).

Wilhelm M. Wundt (1832–1920) - German psychologist and idealist philosopher, founder of the scientific trend in the study of psychology. First he introduced the experience in physiological and psychological practice, opened an experimental psychological laboratory.

Will in voluntarism is inseparable from its free expression. The leading position here is the absolutization of free will, despite certain manifestations of external situations.

As a philosophical trend, voluntarism is alien to the views of two other central “opponents”: fatalism, which does not consider the independence of choice in behavior and human activity based on the predetermination of everything, and Marxist materialism, which did not deny both of these directions.