WILL (SOCIOLOGY)

In sociology, 'will' is a concept introduced by Ferdinand Tönnies in "''Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft''", 1887. Tönnies' approach was very much indebted to Spinoza's dictum ''voluntas atque intellectus unum et idem sunt'' ("will as well as ratio are one and the same"), and to Arthur Schopenhauer.
Tönnies saw a fundamental cleavage between "essential will" (''Wesenwille'') creating community (''Gemeinschaft''), and "arbitrary will" (''Kürwille''), creating society (''Gesellschaft'') - ''see'' Ferdinand Tönnies#Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft.
''See as well:'' Voluntarism