Concept
Resignation
Overview
Resignation is the formal act of relinquishing or vacating one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or choosing not to seek an additional term, is not considered resignation.
When an employee chooses to leave a position, it is considered a resignation, as opposed to involuntary termination. Whether an employee resigned or was terminated is sometimes a topic of dispute, because in many situations, a terminated employee is eligible for severance pay and/or unemployment benefits, whereas one who voluntarily resigns may not be eligible. Abdication is the equivalent of resignation for a reigning monarch, pope, or holder of another similar position.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Resignation is discussed.
Resignation is of two sorts, one rooted in despair, the other in unconquerable hope. The first is bad; the second is good.
Bertrand Russell, The conquest of happiness
a chapter is titled for it; states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
Let us therefore try to tempt him into self-love. RESIGNATION.—What is resignation? It is the most comfortable position of a patient, who, after having suffered a long time from tormenting pains in order to find it, at last became tired—and then found it.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Dawn of Day
states what it is; names the idea
According to what has been said, the denial of the will to live, which is just what is called absolute, entire resignation, or holiness, always proceeds from that quieter of the will which the knowledge of its inner conflict and essential vanity, expressing themselves in the suffering of all living things, becomes. The difference, which we have represented as two paths, consists in whether that knowledge is called…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
states what it is; opens on it; names the idea
I could not have made more than the infinite movement (of resignation) to find myself and again repose in myself. Nor would I have loved Isaac as Abraham loved him. The fact that I was resolute enough to resign is sufficient to prove my courage in a human sense, and the fact that I loved him with my whole heart is the very presupposition without which my action would be a crime; but still I did not love as did…
Søren Kierkegaard, Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard
names the idea; opens on it
“When I saw to what a point of resignation I was now called of the Lord,” he says, “I resolved, with his help, therein to glorify him. So, two hours before my lovely consort expired, I kneeled by her bedside, and I took into my two hands a dear hand, the dearest in the world.
William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience
names the idea
Related ideas
- Philippines
- President of the United States
- Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- Richard Nixon
- Los Angeles Times
- Conservative Party (UK)
- George W. Bush
- Election
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Nihilism.