It was not possible to put questions on the mind-brain relation, automatism and the freedom of the will independently of a decision about the status of psychology as science. This, however, was a divisive issue, the source of much variety of opinion. If there is to be history of volition as a psychological category, it is first necessary to understand different claims for psychology as a field.

In the 1830s, it had become common in English to refer to psychology as an area of knowledge, and from the mid-century there began to be a literature claiming to define its nature and content. A diverse group of individuals were active; there was in Britain no discipline, in the sense of an institutionally secure field of knowledge with defined practices of research and teaching, and there was no paying occupation of psychologist. Some people were drawn in by phrenology (the London Phrenological Society was founded in 1823) or through medical activity (the Journal of Mental Science was founded in 1852). Followers of Mill, firmly in the empiricist camp, published more systematic work in the 1850s.