As a runner, martial artist and philosopher my view of the will is shaped mostly by my training and competitions. Naturally enough, I see the will from my own perspective and in my own mind. So, as Hume noted in his discussion of personal identity, I must consider that other people might see their will as very different, or they might not believe that they have a will at all.

As a gamer, I model reality in terms of game rules and statistics—I am approaching the will in the same manner. This is, of course, like modeling reality in other ways, such as using mathematical models.

In my experience, my will functions as a mental resource that allows me to control my actions. By using my will, I can prevent other factors from forcing me to act or not act in certain ways. For example, I can use my will to counter pain or hunger. Or that feeling that I need to check social media. In game terms, I see the will as being like “hit points” that get used up in the battle against these other factors. As with hit points, running out of “will points” results in defeat. Since this is rather abstract, I will illustrate this with two examples.

On August 22 I did the last of the four-part summer trail series. This was a 6-mile trail race in the Florida heat. I had re-injured my foot the week before at another cross-country race, so this run was extra challenging.  As I raced, it became increasingly painful and fatiguing. The pain and fatigue were “trying” to stop me. I wanted to keep running and doing this required expending those will points. This is because without my will the pain and fatigue would stop me before I am physically incapable of running anymore. As long as I have will points to expend, I could keep running until I collapse. At that point no amount of will can move the muscles and my capacity to exercise my will in this matter would also be exhausted. Naturally, I know that training to the point of exhaustion would do more harm than good, so I will myself take a rest day each week even though I still want to run. I also know from experience that my will can run out, and I can give in to fatigue or pain before my body is physically failing.  These occurrences are failures of will illustrate that the will can obviously run out or be overcome.

After my run, I had my breakfast and faced the temptation of a chocolate bar and whoopie pies I had made earlier that week. I really like sugar and there was a conflict between my wanting sweets and my choice not to shove lots of extra calories into my whoopie pie port. My hunger, of course, “wants” to control me. But, of course, if I yield then I am not in control—the desire is directing me against my will. Of course, the hunger is not going to “give up” and it must be controlled by expending will and doing this keeps me in control of my actions by making them my choice. Or so it seems on this narrative.

There are many competing narratives to the will in philosophy. For example, Hobbes’ account of deliberation is that competing desires (or aversions) “battle it out”, but the stronger always wins and thus there is no will or choice. For Spinoza, everything that happens must happen as it does, there is no choice or chance. Philosophers who are less dead have other accounts of the will, some involving whatever scientific view of the brain was in at the time they wrote.

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