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Reading about the philosophy of action here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_(philosophy)

I am finding it difficult to distinguish between the two. What is meant by intention and how is it different from volition?

I'm trying to understand what it means for a philosopher to accept existence of intentions and reject volitions, or vice versa.

Ameet Sharma
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    Volition includes some sort of effort to act on the intention, see [Adams-Mele, The Intention/Volition Debate](https://www.jstor.org/stable/40231786):"*A variety of competing conceptions of volition, intention, and trying have been advanced in the literature... We can show, however, that the major functional roles ascribed to volition are nicely filled by a triad composed of intention, trying, and information feedback*". – Conifold Jan 27 '23 at 15:02
  • I would personally deem both irrelevant. It's a moot point in my field, because free-will cannot even be made conceptually coherent. There's only the conscious awareness of what's gifted to you by the subconscious, misconstrued as intentionality or will. “How can we be “free” as conscious agents if everything that we consciously intend is caused by events in our brain that we do not intend and of which we are entirely unaware?” - Sam Harris. – kendall.tubbs Jan 27 '23 at 16:11
  • @kendall.tubbs Harris makes at least two mistakes in this one sentence. First, intending does not need to be conscious. It is peculiar that two ideas, that consciousness is an illusion and that free will needs to be conscious, so often co-exist in the same heads. And second, what we intend may just be an alternative description of some events in our brains, and caused by "us", with or without awareness. Those events are not determinative causes anyway according to quantum mechanics. I recommend reading more thorough authors, like Mele, Harris's primary goal is social advocacy, not analysis. – Conifold Jan 28 '23 at 04:07

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In everyday speech, intention refers to an aim, while volition implies a free choice. Clearly there is an overlap between the two but also a difference. The contrasting meanings are apparent when I say my intention is to pay my income tax bill before the deadline of January 31st, but I am not doing so out of my own volition.

Marco Ocram
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