WILL, James Karoor

Will means to decide, bring about, or attempt to effect or bring about by an act of the will. Will is the faculty of conscious and especially of deliberate action; the power of control the mind has over its own actions: the freedom of the will. Will is the power of choosing one's own actions.

Psychologists also deal with issues of will; some people are highly intrinsically motivated and do whatever seems best to them, while others are "weak-willed" and easily suggestible by society or outward inducement. Apparent failures of the will and volition have also been reported associated with a number of mental and neurological disorders. They also study the phenomenon of Akrasia, wherein people seemingly act against their best interests and know that they are doing so (for instance, restarting cigarette smoking after having intellectually decided to quit). Advocates of Sigmund Freud's psychology stress the importance of the influence of the unconscious mind upon the apparent conscious exercise of will. Abraham Low, a critic of psychoanalysis, stressed the importance of will, the ability to control thoughts and impulses, as fundamental for achieving mental health.

Will in philosophical discussions, like generally in the English language, refers to the desire of an individual, and the acts done when such decisions are put into effect. Actions made according to a person's will are called "willing" or "voluntary". In general the word will does not refer to one desire amongst many however, but the end result, or in other words the choice, decision, or determination which people come to about what they want. The will is in turn important within philosophy because a person's will is one of the most distinct and recognizable aspects or parts of any individual's human mind, along with reason and understanding. It is one of the things which make a person who they are, and it is especially important in ethics, because it is the part which determines how people act, at least when they act deliberately.

One of the repeating questions discussed throughout all periods of philosophical history is the question of "free will" which asks how will can be truly free if the actions of people have natural or divine causes which determine them, but which are not really under the control of people. The question is directly connected to discussions of what freedom is, and also the "problem of evil", because it brings into question whether people really cause their own act.