La dialettica della volontà e dell'involontario

‘Will’ is a polisemic term. In this paper we explore it from the angle of the dialectic between the voluntary and the involuntary. The ontological dialectic of involuntary and voluntary aspects disclose the normative challenge of being a person. Being a person is trying to exist as myself in and through the challenges of all those features that make up what I am (e.g. my anonymous biology, my past, my present uncanny experiences, the way I feel defined by people while they look at me), but which cannot describe who I am. The involuntary dimension of my being the person that I am includes what is a priori given in my existence, the raw material that constitutes the sedimented dispositions of my being and sets the boundaries of my freedom. The involuntary is the unchosen, implicit possibilities limiting my actions and reactions, the dark side of the person, and its obscure and dissociated spontaneity. It is the a priori determined Whatness of Who we are, that is, the experience of necessity, of what we did not and cannot choose. Notions like ‘drive’, ‘emotions’, ‘desire’, ‘character’, etc., belong to the circle of the involuntary. The roots of the involuntary are my history, my body, and the world into which I am thrown. In the current work we examine this dialectic between the voluntary and the involuntary, underlining how it is closely linked to the concept of selfhood and alterity, and their dialectic. If and only if I voluntarily appropriate the involuntary dimension of my existence I can put it at the service of my identity