A comparative study of the stimulus pattern of human voluntary action from the perspective of Avicenna and psychologists of drive theory

Nowadays, drive theory, as a trend in psychology, analyzes the stages of volitional action. Ibn Sina has also theorized about the stages of human volitional action. The question is what the relationship is between these two types of attitudes regarding the motivation of human volitional action, according to the discussions of faculty of appetite (qūwa šawqiyya) in Ibn Sina's philosophy and the drive theory. It seems that with the frameworks presented in the drive theories and application of concepts such as the driver mode, goal-oriented behavior, achieving the right goal, reducing the driver mode, and relief when reaching the goal, it is possible to extract a theory about the motivation of human voluntary action from Ibn Sina's works. In this regard, by referring to Ibn Sina's works, we have extracted the components of his view on the faculty of appetite (qūwa nuzūʿiyya šawqiyya) and analyzed the related texts. After that, according to the new views on motivation, especially the drive theory, the desired concepts were extracted to reconstruct of Avicenna's view. Examining the literature led the writers to the point of view that in Ibn Sina's works, the process of motivating human volitional action is discussed. This process includes components such as imagining the act, creation of excitement, will, doing the act, and finally tranquility after doing the act. By comparing this mechanism and the theory of driving psychologists, we reach a similar pattern between these two theories. In other words, according to the comparative study between the drive theory and Ibn Sina's theory of willful motive faculties, it is possible to reach a similar structure for the stimulus of human volitional action in these two theories.