You choose, then I'll choose and we'll see which one of us it comes to
Freewill, for some unexplained reason, happens to be popularly debated. Some say it exists, other say it doesn't, others say it's just an illusion. I don't understand where all the confusion comes from. Freewill is very simple.
Freewill is simply the ability to choose from a known number of choices. It's like when a magician fans out a card deck in front of you and asks you to choose a card. You can take any card you want. You have absolute freewill (provided he hasn't tempered with the deck). You can only choose from the cards that you see. You can't choose any other card because you aren't aware of its existence in this particular situation. The magician could potentially be holding another deck of cards in his back pocket, but because you aren't presented with those choices and because you haven't been previously told about another deck of cards else where, your only choices are those of the cards in front of you. It's the same with any other situation where we have to make a choice. We can choose to do anything we want. There is nobody that can stop us, and there is nothing that can prevent us from this choice. However, from the previous entry, you'll notice that all those choices we are presented with are initiated by some influence. That's where the choices originate. Each time we learn something, we add on another card to the deck that we can choose from.
However, ultimate freewill is an illusion because we aren't able to choose from all the possible choices. The reason for this is that we simply don't have certain choices available to us, or they are unknown to us. Like things we haven't yet discovered. For example, the prehistoric men in 40,000 B.C. probably needed light for their caves so that they could move about without hitting their heads on the rocks. They were presented with this problem: How do we illuminate our residence? Well, at the time, torches were popular, wax candles weren't invented yet, neither were oil lamps and electricity and the electric light bulb wouldn't come around until many years later. So the prehistoric men had several choices to choose from: torches, small fires, carving our more windows for more sunlight. All these are choices that they could choose from, including many others. However, electricity or oil lamps weren't a choices. In fact, if you were to try and explain what electricity was to an ancient cave man, he probably wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about. This is because the thought of electrons and tiny particles moving and creating electric current is completely absurd to someone who is used to making fire from sticks and stones. Their known universe and imagination is simply not capable of understanding a concept as such, especially never having seen one in practice. So, even though we know that electricity and light bulbs exist, the prehistoric men at the time didn't have access to it, or any knowledge of it, so it couldn't be one of their choices for providing light in their caves. Even though they had freewill, it was limited due to the restrictions on their intellectual capabilities and the lack of influences they've had.
If we present the same problem to the modern man he would have many more choices to choose from, but again it won't be an ultimate selection. I'm sure there are other methods of light generation out there that we simply haven't invented or gained control of yet. I guess, we could construct a small nuclear sun in our room to generate light... Or something that I can't even possibly imagine (like the prehistoric man and electricity), so even though I feel like I have a variety of options to choose from, it will not be an ultimate choice. To me, however, it shouldn't matter, because I don't find myself at all robbed of choices. Even though I am aware of the possibility of other options existing out there, because I'm restricted (technologically, intellectually, etc..) I can't choose them anyways.
So again, this isn't to say however that the cave men didn't have freewill. Freewill is not the ability to choose from all possible choices. Freewill is the ability to choose from all known choices. You can't decide to do something you don't know. It's contradictory and illogical. In this respect, freewill is an illusion, but it's irrelevant to us. Just because there are other options out there that we are incapable of, or unaware of, doesn't mean we loose our sense of free choice. We are still free to choose from any of the choices we have (and believe me, we have plenty to work with).
Now let's take this freewill concept into a religious context (because I love to do this to prove my religious point of view). If God exists (and I'm talking about the Christian God here, for the sake of popular argument) and He is omnipotent then He ultimately has all the possible choices. He is then not limited to only the choices that He is aware of, because He is aware of all of them. Therefore, you could say that God is in fact the only being that could possibly experience ultimate freewill (that is if humans never achieve such godliness). What this means then is that God is aware of the best and worst thing to do. The reason why right and wrong things appear here (and only here) is because only when you have ultimate freewill can there be extremities like this. So essentially, in a situation where there is a natural disaster occurring that God can prevent (because He is omnipotent), He has the ability to choose a particular scenario where nobody would get injured and where nothing would be destroyed. He has the ability to prevent all innocent death and property damage in any situation. And since this doesn't happen, we must then conclude that if God does in fact exist, He chooses (from all of His choices) to purposefully let people suffer and experience innocent pain.
Now as for whether or not the world is pre-determined, I think it doesn't matter. Because again, if it is pre-determined, until we can prove it, it will not influence our choices. And if it isn't pre-determined, then we don't have to worry about it.
On this unfortunate note, I'm going to end this journal entry.
Freewill is simply the ability to choose from a known number of choices. It's like when a magician fans out a card deck in front of you and asks you to choose a card. You can take any card you want. You have absolute freewill (provided he hasn't tempered with the deck). You can only choose from the cards that you see. You can't choose any other card because you aren't aware of its existence in this particular situation. The magician could potentially be holding another deck of cards in his back pocket, but because you aren't presented with those choices and because you haven't been previously told about another deck of cards else where, your only choices are those of the cards in front of you. It's the same with any other situation where we have to make a choice. We can choose to do anything we want. There is nobody that can stop us, and there is nothing that can prevent us from this choice. However, from the previous entry, you'll notice that all those choices we are presented with are initiated by some influence. That's where the choices originate. Each time we learn something, we add on another card to the deck that we can choose from.
However, ultimate freewill is an illusion because we aren't able to choose from all the possible choices. The reason for this is that we simply don't have certain choices available to us, or they are unknown to us. Like things we haven't yet discovered. For example, the prehistoric men in 40,000 B.C. probably needed light for their caves so that they could move about without hitting their heads on the rocks. They were presented with this problem: How do we illuminate our residence? Well, at the time, torches were popular, wax candles weren't invented yet, neither were oil lamps and electricity and the electric light bulb wouldn't come around until many years later. So the prehistoric men had several choices to choose from: torches, small fires, carving our more windows for more sunlight. All these are choices that they could choose from, including many others. However, electricity or oil lamps weren't a choices. In fact, if you were to try and explain what electricity was to an ancient cave man, he probably wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about. This is because the thought of electrons and tiny particles moving and creating electric current is completely absurd to someone who is used to making fire from sticks and stones. Their known universe and imagination is simply not capable of understanding a concept as such, especially never having seen one in practice. So, even though we know that electricity and light bulbs exist, the prehistoric men at the time didn't have access to it, or any knowledge of it, so it couldn't be one of their choices for providing light in their caves. Even though they had freewill, it was limited due to the restrictions on their intellectual capabilities and the lack of influences they've had.
If we present the same problem to the modern man he would have many more choices to choose from, but again it won't be an ultimate selection. I'm sure there are other methods of light generation out there that we simply haven't invented or gained control of yet. I guess, we could construct a small nuclear sun in our room to generate light... Or something that I can't even possibly imagine (like the prehistoric man and electricity), so even though I feel like I have a variety of options to choose from, it will not be an ultimate choice. To me, however, it shouldn't matter, because I don't find myself at all robbed of choices. Even though I am aware of the possibility of other options existing out there, because I'm restricted (technologically, intellectually, etc..) I can't choose them anyways.
So again, this isn't to say however that the cave men didn't have freewill. Freewill is not the ability to choose from all possible choices. Freewill is the ability to choose from all known choices. You can't decide to do something you don't know. It's contradictory and illogical. In this respect, freewill is an illusion, but it's irrelevant to us. Just because there are other options out there that we are incapable of, or unaware of, doesn't mean we loose our sense of free choice. We are still free to choose from any of the choices we have (and believe me, we have plenty to work with).
Now let's take this freewill concept into a religious context (because I love to do this to prove my religious point of view). If God exists (and I'm talking about the Christian God here, for the sake of popular argument) and He is omnipotent then He ultimately has all the possible choices. He is then not limited to only the choices that He is aware of, because He is aware of all of them. Therefore, you could say that God is in fact the only being that could possibly experience ultimate freewill (that is if humans never achieve such godliness). What this means then is that God is aware of the best and worst thing to do. The reason why right and wrong things appear here (and only here) is because only when you have ultimate freewill can there be extremities like this. So essentially, in a situation where there is a natural disaster occurring that God can prevent (because He is omnipotent), He has the ability to choose a particular scenario where nobody would get injured and where nothing would be destroyed. He has the ability to prevent all innocent death and property damage in any situation. And since this doesn't happen, we must then conclude that if God does in fact exist, He chooses (from all of His choices) to purposefully let people suffer and experience innocent pain.
Now as for whether or not the world is pre-determined, I think it doesn't matter. Because again, if it is pre-determined, until we can prove it, it will not influence our choices. And if it isn't pre-determined, then we don't have to worry about it.
On this unfortunate note, I'm going to end this journal entry.
Labels: choice, decision, free will, freewill, god, human behavior
posted by Evgueni Naverniouk | 11:09 AM
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