On Freedom

Determinism is the view that human action, derived from thought, is determined by the laws of nature. Libertarianism is the view that free will is incompatible with determinism but don't worry determinism is false so everything is cool.

Now to me it seems as if the entire debate is really about answering the question: are my thoughts, assuming the cogito ergo sum is true, that I am my thoughts, and my thoughts are me, determined by the laws of causality. If determinism holds true, if we take the Universe at the beginning of time when the Universe we live in was merely the size of a dot on a piece of paper, we could theoretically use the Laws of Nature (LoN) to work out, even though its very complicated, what I am going to decide tomorrow to eat for lunch. 

If this turns out to be true then Inwagens proof that Determinism and Free Will are incompatible holds true. If determinism holds true the Universe at Time 0 and Place 0 entails, and can only entail, the resulting Place 1 at Time 1 because of the LoN, thus the Universe at T0 and P0 must entail one and only one possibility for what I am going to decide to eat tomorrow at P2 and T2. 

This can only be proven to be false if we can assert that thoughts are not, or not entirely, causally determined by the LoN and this is no small thing to prove. We have no idea how matter, lifeless matter, the rocks you walk on your way to the library, if we could hypothetically reorganize their subatomic particles in a specific way, we could theoretically create a conscious being. A being who is self aware that it exists at all points in time and space. Science and philosophy are still trying to explain the nature of consciousness and it seems to me that if the disciplines are unable to prove that the LoN determine our thoughts then the question of free will will forever be the unanswerable question. 

Now, even if thoughts have the possibility to not be causally determined by the LoN that still does not liberate us from the shackles of determinism. Take for example my desire for a Gucci Bag, a really nice and luxurious Gucci Bag. Classical Compatibilism (CC) states that I am free if these conditions are met: 

1. It is my will that desires the Gucci Bag

2. There is no one external influence forcing to act contrary to my will

3. I have the ability to choose otherwise, so for example the bag next to it. 

Now, the question really is according to condition 1: is it 'Me' who is really desiring the Gucci bag or has it been the carefully studied impact of classical conditioning and social engineering by the Gucci corporation in order to make me believe that I think that I want their Gucci bag or was it really me who willed my desire for the Gucci bag and this goes to the argument against CC. That if someone implants me the desire for something, I really don't have free will. Take for example the episode of Rick and Morty where they go into the dream of Morties math professor in order to implant the idea of wanting to give Morty a good grade in math, now, when the math teacher wakes up the next day, he really and truly does believes that he has decided to want to give Morty a good grade, but has he really decided that? the answer is self evident, no he has not. 

And I believe that to a certain and very large extent our entire existence is literally this form of dream inception, culture, education, upbringing, past experiences, our genetic composition all of these factors play an unconscious role in shaping our 'Self' our cogito, and as we have stated in the dream inception example, I am not the ideas I have not willed, but now we have to face the question: am I really a cogito or am I merely the product of my genetic biological organism which has been conditioned and socially engineered through my culture, education and experiences to determine me to be the way I am and  thus I don't really exist as an independent and free being.

Well... this seems pretty gloomy, but its not all lost, we have assumed that thoughts do have the possibility of not being causally determined by the LoN which includes the effect our biology and cultural upbringing has on us. We have also stated that an important element to free will is the ability to act otherwise. Crucially this is an ability it is not something you are born with, or magically get to have because you are a human being. Humans have the abilities to do backflips, now, do all humans know how to do a backflip? of course not, it is something you have to train to develop. Well it seems to me that Free Will, our ability to freely choose, is kinda like a backflip. We have been conditioned our entire life by our genetic composition as well as our cultural upbringing to be a contingent result of our past, but, really important, we do have the ability to bring the unconscious processes of the past into consciousness in order to transcend the past experiences which are determining us to this day. 

This is something the Ancients such as the Buddha knew, that is why the objective of Buddhism was the extreme form of the ascetic lifestyle because it was only then, that by relinquishing all desires can we truly be a Free and Independent Self that exists in a deterministic world.  Only by relinquishing my desire for the Gucci bag can I know that I am not being determined to chose by external influences.

This has also been confirmed, or at least my belief that is has, by modern psychoanalysis whereby a patient who suffered a traumatic experience in the past which they are unaware of still influence them (negatively) to this day, ignoring Freuds obsession with sex and other stuff, he did achieve groundbreaking developments in the scientific explanation of the unconscious. In psychoanalysis what the doctor does is talk with their patient in order for the patient to figure out, or come to realize, what exactly happened in their past which made them be in the state they are in today.

Now the important aspect of psychoanalysis is the point of bringing unconscious past events into consciousness in order to be aware of what is influencing you and thereby transcend its influence. If I am aware of the role modern corporations can have through social engineering my desires through advertisements I can be aware that maybe my desire to buy their Gucci bag is not really my desire at all but a fabricated will designed by corporations to make me think that I want their product, just like in the Morties math teacher in his desire to give Morty a good grade. 

And I look back to a time where society actually cared about the development of reason, of moral virtue and the development of the mind, as they recognized that it is not only enough to have the possibility of having an ability, one must develop the faculties of the mind to actually have it, a realization that one we seem, despite all our accumulated knowledge, to lack. It seems to me that even if human beings, for some miraculous reason, have the ability to develop this Free Will, it does not seem to me that modernity is much concerned about it. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dancing in the Apocalypse

The World is Ending! The World is Ending!  All that we know is coming to end, what lay ahead? I do not know! All is flux, entropy; the inherent instability of the universe brings to a close what we once knew and forces us into that which we do not!  Where to start!? I do not know! Everything is in change! I am in change! Ought the world not change as well? Nothing is permanent, all that is born; dies; all that grows; becomes ripe, is eaten or rots, returning back to the primordial cycle of all that is!  Are we all going to die from a Climate Crisis which will wipe us all out? Can we maintain a style of life which will not exterminate all living things which exist?  I do not know!  Everything is shifting, everything is changing, the soil we thought was so firm, trembles under our feet, an earthquake is shattering everything we built upon! We live at the end of times, we live at the dawn of a new beginning!  Will technology make my work obsolete? Is everythin...
Read more

To Think, To See & To Speak

Improvement is a continuous process of two step forwards and one step backwards ~ Epictetus I hate this is the case. You decide to go off in one direction, to climb a specific mountain lets say, you learn the skills to climb it, its difficult, its tiring, its exhausting, you want to turn back, but you're convinced that the journey after reaching the top will make it worth. To your horor, you get to where you wanted to go only to realise you have hit a dead end!  You realise with the what you know, the skills you've acquired, you cannot traverse forward, either because you cannot see the path forward or you never acquired the skills to traverse the dead end. Perhaps then what we need to do is go back, retrace our steps, see if we missed something. Did we overlook a skill we though was useless? did we avoid learning something because it was too difficult and instead chose the skill that came easier to us?  I think that is understandable, I don't think there is any shame in th...
Read more

Our Four Selves

??? We all have four selves ??? Our first self exists in the here and now It is the only self we ever consciously experience ??? Our second self is of our past This self exists as a more immature, a more childish, self of ours This self is expected to have made mistakes, for that is the essence of youth We, consequently, have to live with those mistakes Do not reprimand your past self for having made those mistakes, for he might disappear And consequently you may lose the source of vitality, energy and wonder Be kind to your past ??? Our third self, our future We have never experienced nor will we ever meet our future self But he exists there as the potential manifestation of all the potential realities we could become This infinitude of potential selves all compete to gain our attention These selves may even play devious tricks by talking to our past  Your future self can become a tyrant, it may try to take you hostage, demanding you satisfy his desires If your future self disappe...
Read more