Abstract

This paper aims of this to describe, from Hannah Arendt’s point of view the theoretical and historical route that provide the emergence of one at the three faculties of the spirit: the faculty of the will or want. Drawing initially on ancient Greece, the paper also deals with contributions of classic, mediavel and modern thinkers. In a retrospective approach Arendt examines the perception and installation process of the faculty of the will, by correlating it with the advent and consolidation of the linear conception of time, essencially from christian origins, against the background of cyclical conception of time, from Greek origins. It also reflects about the clash between the faculties of will and thinking, by following the controversy between Saint Tomas Aquino and Duns Scotus about the subject. Finally, the paper links the faculty of the will to the idea of freedom which is rationale of human condition