sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

, will is a concept introduced by

Ferdinand Tönnies Ferdinand Tönnies (; 26 July 1855 – 9 April 1936) was a German sociologist, economist, and philosopher. He was a significant contributor to sociological theory and field studies, best known for distinguishing between two types of social g ...

in "'' Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft''", 1887. Tönnies' approach was very much indebted to

Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...

's dictum ''voluntas atque intellectus unum et idem sunt'' ("will as well as ratio are one and the same"), and to

Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...

. Tönnies saw a fundamental cleavage between "essential will" (''Wesenwille'') creating community (''Gemeinschaft''), and "arbitrary will" (''Kürwille''), creating society (''Gesellschaft'') - ''see''

See also