In sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

, will is a concept introduced by Ferdinand Tönnies

Ferdinand Tönnies

Ferdinand Tönnies was a German sociologist. He was a major contributor to sociological theory and field studies, best known for his distinction between two types of social groups, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft...

 in "Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft

Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are sociological categories introduced by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies for two normal types of human association...

", 1887. Tönnies' approach was very much indebted to Spinoza's dictum voluntas atque intellectus unum et idem sunt ("will as well as ratio are one and the same"), and to Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four separate manifestations of reason in the phenomenal...

.

Tönnies saw a fundamental cleavage between "essential will" (Wesenwille) creating community (Gemeinschaft), and "arbitrary will" (Kürwille), creating society (Gesellschaft) - see Ferdinand Tönnies#Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft.