Ontological Analysis of the Problem of Weakness of Will in Transcendent Philosophy

This paper focuses on the weakness of will or the distance between theory and practice. Thus it tries to explore the quality of the ontological analysis of this problem based on the theory of the graded unity of being. In a quiddative analysis, the principles of willful act enjoy causal and temporal sequence; however, in an ontological analysis, they are the levels of the single truth of being. Accordingly, knowledge and act are the different aspects of a single truth which, upon being originated in essence, is called knowledge at one stage and will or desire at another stage. As a result, knowledge and voluntary act are two ends of the same continuum which has a single root in human essence; a root of the type of love and bliss. In a quiddative approach, weakness of will is rooted in the weakness of the components of the causal chain preceding it, such as the concept of act and affirmation of its advantages. Nevertheless, in an ontological approach, the weakness of voluntary act is directly related to Man’s ontological weakness and the weakness of the knowledge which is commensurate with it. The ontological view differs from the quiddative view in that it does not consider voluntary act to be at the end of a chain of basic principles in separation from knowledge. Rather, it views act as one of the manifestations of an ontological truth which is commensurate with knowledge.