In Book III, Aristotle gives an account of what a voluntary action is. Which is an action that a person can be held accountable or responsible for. In this essay I will explain what Aristotle means in saying that an action can be voluntary without being chosen, the difference between involuntary actions due to constraint, and those due to ignorance, and the difference between actions which are non-voluntary due to ignorance and those which, beyond this, are involuntary due to ignorance.
The first question that needs to be answered is, what is meant by an action can be voluntary without being chosen. Acts that are done in the spur of the moment are voluntary acts, but are done without any choice. Not all-voluntary action involves choice. Choice is the outcome of deliberation. Deliberation is away to achieve what is within the person's power to bring about through his or action. Choice is about the means to the end intended as the product of his action. Both children and animals display voluntary actions, but neither is able to make choice. An example of this would an appetite or hunger. Choice is not common to irrational creatures as well, but appetite is. An incontinent man acts with appetite, but not with choice, while the continent man on the contrary acts with choice, but not with appetite. .
The next question that must be answered is, what is the difference between involuntary actions due to constraint, and those due to ignorance. The first thing that needs to be known is what is an involuntary action? An involuntary action is if the agent lacks causal control over his action, if his action is the effect of causes external to himself, if he acts under compulsion or perhaps under duress, and if the agent is ignorant of the particulars of his action. An act that done under constraint is one in which something comes from it, but the person that does the receive nothing. An involuntary act that is due to ignorance would be an act in which accidents occur which the person could not have foreseen, an act in which the person produces effects unintentionally, or an act in which the person produces unintended effects due to misidentification.
