Will, Voluntary, Retribution

'Voluntary', as distinguished from 'involuntary', is primarily a category in a system of Retributive Justice, i. e. the drawing of the distinction functions as a determination of class of culpability, and, hence, of the type of punishment to be meted out. In contrast, 'voluntary', as admitting degrees of variation, is an element in Ethical evaluation, with Ethics understood as a program of self-cultivation. Self-cultivation produces what has previously here been termed Evolvement, i. e. personal growth, which entails the exercise of Will, the principle of Excession in Experience. Since one can evolve to a greater or lesser degree in a specific experience, Will can be exercised to a greater or lesser extent in it. So, since 'voluntary' pertains to the exercise of Will, an act can, for purposes of Ethical evaluation, be characterized as more or less voluntary. Thus, insofar as jurisprudential assessment recognizes the possibility of mitigating circumstances in the performance of an act, its use of 'voluntary' acknowledges its Ethical sense, but simplifies it for the convenience of retributive processes.