The faculty of volition gives man a special status in two crucial respects: 1.
unlike the metaphysically given, man’s products, whether material or
intellectual, are not to be accepted uncritically—and 2. by its
metaphysically given nature, a man’s volition is outside the power of other
men. What the unalterable basic constituents are to nature, the attribute of a
volitional consciousness is to the entity “man.” Nothing can force a man to
think. Others may offer him incentives or impediments, rewards or punishments,
they may destroy his brain by drugs or by the blow of a club, but they cannot
order his mind to function: this is in his exclusive, sovereign power. Man is
neither to be obeyed nor to be commanded.