Voluntary actions are actions performed by an agent deliberately and intentionally in order to realize some foreseen ends. They are actions performed by the self with volition or will. Habits are the results of repeated voluntary actions. So, Habitual action is voluntary.
A voluntary action has three stages viz., the mental stage, the bodily stage and external stage of consequence.
(1) The Mental Stage: Every voluntary action as actuated by a spring of action. It is feeling of want, actual or ideal. It is either an instinct or an appetite, or an intellectual, moral, or aesthetic craving. A feeling of want is always painful and generates an impulse. But it is usually mingled with pleasure which arises from the anticipation of satisfaction of the want in future. Thus the painful feeling of want is mixed with an agreeable feeling of ideal satisfaction. But the disagreeable feelings predominates over the agreeable feeling. The feeling of want e.g. an appetite leads the rational agent to think out some appropriate object which is necessary to relieve the want. The object itself to remove the want, is said to be the end of the action. The idea of thought of the object which excites the state of desire for its attainment is called the motive.
The spring of action or the feeling of want is converted into a desire. Desire is a craving to satisfy a feeling of want by attaining its proper object. In desire there is the idea of the object or end or motive which will satisfy the feeling of want. There is also the idea of the means for realizing the end.
In complex action many wants demand satisfaction. If one is satisfied, the other has to be rejected altogether. Thus, there arises in the mind a competition, rivalry or conflict between the different motives and desires.
When there is a conflict of motive, the self arrests action and deliberates upon the merits and demerits by different motives. The self weights them in the balance and considers the pros and cons. This is called deliberation.
After deliberation, the self choose a particular motive and identifies itself with it. It chooses a particulars course of action and rejects the rest. This act of selection of one motive to exclusion of others is called choice or decision.
(2) Bodily stage: When choice or resolution has been made and kept by resolution, it is converted into bodily action. The idea of movement attended to carries itself out into actual movement by its impulsive character of the idea of movement. This explanation is offered by William James.
(3) External Stage of consequence: The bodily action produces changes in the external world. These are called consequences which included the following realization of the chosen and intended means, desirable, or undesirable or both, certain foreseen consequences and certain unforeseen, unintended, accidental consequences.
