Aristotle Voluntary Vs. Involu

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of power.
Aristotle tends to agree that most actions are voluntary and from this fact comes much of the praise we receive for our actions, “…sometimes people are even praised for doing them [voluntary actions], for example, if they endured shameful or painful treatment in return” (p.53). If others feel that an action is worthy or noble they will acknowledge the person’s conscious choice of the action and see they receive due reward. In general, Aristotle feels that people are in control of their actions, whether a thoughtful choice is made or not.
Here Aristotle makes a distinction, a voluntary action is not necessarily a choice. A choice is a thoughtful decision, as he points out “For choice is not shared by irrational creatures…” (p.58). Children and animals are capable of voluntary action, such as eating, running, communicating, but they are not capable of choice, for choice begins to enter into the moral realm. Choice is an action of a creature that can reason because ...

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feels no sorrow” (p.55), this man would be called a non- voluntary agent.
Non-voluntary action is when the action causes no regret or pain from its consequences. Actions could range from throwing cargo off a ship in a storm to a serial killer’s rampage of murder. These are actions performed under constraint but constraint in such a way that voluntary action is still possible. Aristotle uses the example of a man asked to commit a heinous crime and so saves his family from death. This is not involuntary as the man has a choice on whether to commit the crime or not but he makes his decision under distress and most likely will not regret his decision, thus making it a non-voluntary ...

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