Urges, inhibition, and voluntary action

Abstract

It is constitutive of the notion of an urge that it must precede the action it urges. For the duration of an urge to be non-zero, some process must keep the action being urged in check. Urges therefore inevitably involve inhibition of action, and perhaps conflict between action and inaction. In any event, they cannot form a critical part of the phenomenology that many argue must precede voluntary action, for if they play any part at all, it is only in situations where the action is to some degree inhibited.