«Llamamos decisión o elección al acto elícito de la voluntad que tiene por objeto(...)»
What is the meaning of elícito in this sentence? From word reference dictionary I get no definition, so I've tried a Portuguese dictionary and I get adjective from verb «eliciar» which may mean to expel, to bring out, to atract, to evoke, etc.
May I use these meanings? Which one is more suitable in this situation?
Initially I figured this was a mere misspelling for ilícito. That said, I pulled up the document it seems you got this from, and I'm more inclined to say it an odd calque from English (or Latin, given that's ultimately where we got it from) to Spanish.
The OED defines elicit (adj.) as “Of an act: Evolved immediately from an active power or quality; opposed to imperate” and further clarifies that
The ‘elicit acts’ of the will are its internal acts (i.e. the volitions themselves); its ‘imperate acts’ are the external acts ‘commanded’ by it. In Ethics, the ‘elicit acts’ of a particular virtue are those essentially implied in its definition; its ‘imperate acts’ are those which it may under peculiar circumstances require.
Investigating further, it seems this line is from a book translated from the Italian, as per its introduction
es la traducción, adaptada al público de lengua española y puesta al día, de la primera reimpresión de la tercera edición del mismo manual en lengua italiana
An Italian dictionary shows that the definition for elicitare (v.) is
tr. [dal lat. elicitare, frequent. di elicere «tirare fuori»] (io elìcito, ecc). – In psicologia, riferito a comportamenti o condotte, stimolarli, ottenerli mediante domande o altri stimolie
But when I tried to find an adjective form of it, a Portuguese definition popped up in Google with a very specific phrasal form quite relevant to the use in the document:
ato elícito: FILOSOFÍA (escolástica) o que é proporio da vontade (querer, consentir)
(do latim elicĭtu-, participio passado de elicĕre «fazer sair; atrair*)
Its root actually matches better the one for the Italian elicere, but I'm already pretty off topic now haha.
An elicit act, in philosophy then and as used in the document, is one done of one's own will, as contrasted with an imperate act (done of someone else's).
Puedo decirte que en mi vida, jamás había escuchado esa palabra google dice "elícito: que es voluntario" pero ni la RAE ni el DEM tienen esa palabra registrada. Creo que es posible que te refieras a "ilícito" que significa que es ilegal, que no sigue las leyes. Saludos.
Based on Oxford Dictionary*:
Elícito adj. : Que es voluntario.
Which is a synonym of voluntario: voluntary in English.
So, if we substitute elícito for voluntario we get:
«Llamamos decisión o elección al acto voluntario de la voluntad que tiene por objeto(...)»
As you can see this is redundant, because voluntario is a derivative word of voluntad.
Therefore, the correct way to write that sentence is:
«Llamamos decisión o elección al acto elícito que tiene por objeto(...)»
*verified with philosophical concepts, that I did't mention to avoid an unnecessary long answer.
