For this one, you may want to look up “Free Will” on the internet and pick a couple of TED talks for background.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/theres-no-such-thing-as-free-will/480750/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH_VG_aqwoc
INTRODUCTION: A small but hard core mix of neuroscientists, philosophers and psychologists holds that hardly anything we do is an expression of “Free Will”. That is, we are, essentially, “Biological Robots” simply acting out what is in our DNA, including what has been “programmed into us” by our heredity and our environment … which includes “hard-wired” epigenetic alterations to our DNA. The main point of this debate is that our behavior is mostly predictable! If we screwed up or MISbehaved, it wasn’t because “the devil made me do it” (Flip Wilson), it was because that’s simply – or not so simply – who we are and what we do – and the only thing we could have been expected to do in given circumstances.
[… never mind that it likely wouldn’t hold much water in a court of law!]
What this mix of scientists has done is to make some very astute observations of selected behaviors and genetic and epigenetic imprints in rats and monkeys and humans that support their assertion, and then they have extrapolated to behavior in general.
The “clinching argument” is that, when they do the reverse … i.e., look for evidence of “Free Will” rather than for “Programmed Behavior” … they have a difficult time finding it!
“People are unaware of what they are doing 47% of the time.”
A key question here is: Why? If there IS “Free Will”, why is it so hard to find and document?
This discussion brings to mind the words of Martin Luther as he posted his “Ninety-Five Theses” in 1517:
“ … to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.
Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me.”
A more operational question is: Why would anyone FREELY WILL themselves to do things that are personally harmful, destructive or self-sabotaging? Hmmm …
Two other considerations are worth raising:
- The automation of at least some, and perhaps many, aspects of human behavior can help maximize productivity … like problem solving while not having to think about showering, shaving or brushing one’s teeth.
- It’s a good thing our heart rhythm is “automated” or we’d go both nuts and exhausted just keeping the blood flowing! However,
- The automation of human behavior can make us “slaves” to whatever the driving forces are. “Driving Forces” are really important! (vida infra)
We might also ask a couple more esoteric questions:
What does this debate say about “Artificial Intelligence”?
What does it say about the squirrels digging holes in my back yard?
Two additional elements worth considering are: HABITS and CONSEQUENCES.
Our friends fronting the “Free Will” debate do allow some small fraction of latitude in such things as obeying the speed limit … because we don‘t want to get a traffic ticket. That’s a conscious, “Free Will” decision based on a potentially adverse consequence … except that we’ve already established a BOUNDARY – the “speed limit” in our own minds – beyond which we will not go. Here’s the catch: By free will, we established the boundary, but what keeps the boundary in place is the threat of consequences, making it LOOK LIKE an automated response. Practically, who cares what you call it, just keep that boundary in place!
So now to DRIVING FORCES [see also Maslow’s Pyramid of needs]. The three most critical internal driving forces of note are NEED, WANT/REWARD and AVOIDANCE OF HARM. These arise from hard-wired biological survival mechanisms. NEEDS have to be resolved before we can move on to WANTS (or so one might think!), and resolution of needs is an inextricable part of the cost-of-living. REWARD makes life worth living and AVOIDANCE OF HARM makes living more sustainable. Where FREE WILL comes into play is where we get to choose how we resolve our NEEDS (both present and future), what kinds of rewards we will find most “rewarding” (e.g., eating as many donuts, grease burgers and fries as possible or beating the latest rage video game versus building a vibrant, active, healthy and engaging lifestyle) and what kinds of harm we want to avoid (e.g., being eaten alive by zombies versus being unable to sustain a viable lifestyle.)
“One definition of success might be:
refining our appetites
[e.g.,‘wanting’ what is most nobly and sustainably ‘good for us’] ,
while deepening our hunger
[e.g., for vibrant relationships and inspiring and enabling enlightenment –
far above and beyond double bacon cheeseburgers].”
Yahia Lababidi [Annotated]
Free Will is, essentially, conscious choice. How much of it have you got, or do you routinely engage? The defining measure of free will may well be what we WON’T do, i.e., the degree to which we control impulsiveness and willingly defer and delay gratification. Take, for example, the now ubiquitous marshmallow experiment:
https://www.ted.com/talks/joachim_de_posada_says_don_t_eat_the_marshmallow_yet
Summation
An innate tendency to “Go with the flow” is going to look like … feel like … and yield results like we are being driven by unseen forces of Fate. “Free Will” is exercised most intently and effectively by challenging the “flow”, by questioning “things being as they are”, and by daring to make them better. Having a Purpose/Mission … a BECAUSE, paying attention, discerning and adding VALUE, setting boundaries/barriers, gating and bridling, and doing things “like you mean it” will send the “Free Will Doubters” packing! This will all take a good deal of GRIT [ref., Angela Duckworth]. But what a difference it will make in realizing a purposeful, “Free Will” Destiny rather than succumbing to a sorry, “programmed” Fate! I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do with it! Quartermaster
