So it's kind of sad that this is the last blog post, so I'll make it a good one (although all the other ones have hopefully been good too). Its also the last post so it will likely be long. I want to talk about the Tralframadoirans idea of free will. While some may easily dismiss the idea of fate, there have been numerous "forward thinkers" who think free will is not real. I'll say straight up, I believe in free will. The Tralframadorians' concept of time (hereafter TCT) is worth exploring a little, because many people with big degrees agree with it, just not necessairily who Kurt says came up with it.
The idea that all events are "frozen in amber" that people can just look at certain events and ignore others seems silly. The very nature of the story seems to defeat it. How can one at one time be looking at time, and yet be in time? How can they be testing and examining Billy, and be looking through another window of time? Why not just look through time to see how the examination would have come out? But I don't think this particular notion needs much discussion because i don't think most of us agree with it.
So here's the big picture: Free Will vs. Fate.
First, I'll take on the idea of fate. Fate is often percieved as all of our actions are predefined for us, and we just go with the flow. Ironically, such thinking would seem to suggest a higher power of some sort setting the path we follow, but many fatalists don't believe in one. But that's another story. There are two large problems with such thinking. First, if that were true, why do we bother to act? Why not just sit their like vegetables? The fatalist would say "well, if you're fated to do that then that's what you'll do." Fatalsim is a neat argument in that any logical thinking response can be ignored and just said to be fate. Even the very act of me writing this could be dismissed as "fate." So I'd like to ask one look at my arguments in a dispassionate state, ignore your personal feelings and don't just dismiss what I'm saying as "fate." The second large problem with the idea of "fate" is that no one knows what their fate is. I might be "fated" to eat chicken tomorrow, but that could just be because I ran out of beef. That type of argument is at least funcitonal on a fatalist level. But let's take a different example. Say I have both beef and chicken. I eat chicken. I choose to eat chicken, it has nothing to do with a predefined order of events.
Now let me deal with a likely objection. The fatalist says "But Ed, you believe in a God, right? One who knows everything right? So fate must be true, correct?" No. It doesn't. Here's two explanations. The first: I don't know what my choice is going to be until I make it. I have the coice to act as I see fit. But maybe that's not convincing enough. Try the second: God just knows what my choice will be. He allows me to make my choice on my own, but just knows how I'll choose. In effect, he doesn't make my choice for me, he just knows what I'm going to choose.
Now let me sum up with arguments for free will. Almost everything you do in a day can be done a different way. You can walk with larger steps, you can open the right door or the left door, you can hold the door for someone or not, the list goes on. It seems silly to say that I'm fated to have my steps 17.813 inches apart each step. It seems more likely that that is just a comfortable stride. holding the door for someone: I choose to be nice, or I choose to not be. Life is all about choices. You chose to read this post, and hopefully you'll choose to comment on it. How do you guys think?
10 comments:
First things first, your chicken and beef analogy was perfect. Merely moments before I commented on this blog I was torn between Salsa Verde or Black Bean Salsa to accompany my tortilla chips. What did I do? I had both. That was my choice. No supreme being or concept decided for me, it was all me. If my choice had been predetermined by destiny, then it would not have mattered so much to me. Free will is what enabled me to make that choice and it is what will enable every decision I make for my entire life. I simply find the concept of fate impractical and unexplainable.
I like your post, Ed. It was a little difficult to follow the argument sometimes, but I think I got it. I am going to disagree with you for the sake of more argument... You may or may not believe in the science of it, but scientists have demonstrated on some mammals that we don't have free will. Our actions are independent of our thinking, to put it simply. This would seem to support the idea of fate. Things happen as they should and as they will. But I don't think a lack of free will suggests that everything is predetermined. As evolutionists have recently discovered, populations change because of culture, and because of environmental pressures. Maybe what we perceive to be free will isn't actually free will. Sure, we feel like we choose, and I agree, that is a comfortable feeling, but experiments show we don't actually choose, and that the Tralfamadorian concept of time might be accurate. It is hard to win this argument for either side. Free will feels natural and its hard to argue with what feels right. But I don't think things are fated either. I think we are just subjects of our subconscious mind, but we have a unique ability to question whether it is really ourselves talking, or something else. It could be the pressures of our environment that cause our subconscious mind to cause us to act a certain way. But its not important what is science -- it is important what you believe, that is why this argument can't be won. The same with, "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" Or whether God exists and maintains this TCT concept of time. We will never know. But it is interesting to question.
I also agree with you that fatalism is quite silly at times. It is so easy to disregard anything someone does as fate, that the concept is basically ludicrous. All of your analogies, although sometimes a little quirky, really help sell your point. I agreed with you before you presented your arguments, but I am even more convinced now that you have presented them.
I thought this was a really strong post, I loved the way you wrapped up the post with the door concept. I believe that it fits perfectly with what you preciously wrote. The idea that we can choose to open doors for people or in turn only open the door for ones self, gives us all the belief that the decisions we make only pave the roads in which we walk on.
Very riveting post Ed. You really raise some deep, pounding questions. To be honest, while I was reading this, your points were so hard-hitting that I had no clue where I stood on the matter. I think that both sides have equally good arguments. For fate, it's easy to say there is a higher being controlling what we do. For the cynics out there, it is just as easy to say, you know what, I don't believe in God, and everything I do is because I want to do it. The idea that I think your argument corresponds with is the idea of deism- that there is a God, but he merely watches over us and does not affect our decisions. Regardless, well done Ed.
It is scary to think of life in terms of free will and that people have power over their own decisions. I personally believe that people have free will and the ability to make their own decisions. People use destiny as a method for explaining ideas and events that are beyond their understanding. Sometimes actions occur that seem almost magical or at least unbelievable, but I still think people have the power to control these outcomes. People underestimate the amount of influence and power they have over their own lives.
So ED, loved the last blog, job well done.
Now some of ya'll say we have free will. Kinda building off my last blog post - I think free will is jus an illusion like Vonnegut presents it. We cannot go back and choose the opposing choice we could have made. I think our decisions are predestined. There are "options" before us but we do not know what the other option would have done to us under most circumstances. But then again, if free will actually does exist, does it have its limits?
It's kind of odd to think of life being predestined. Although some may believe that what happens has already been set to be that way forever. It's just scary to think that I might not be the person who decides what I do. I did like the analogies you made Ed, really helped prove your point, even if they were kind of weird.
Edvard, I liked your post and the discussion between the idea of free will and fate. I completely agree with you. My Rabbi once delivered a sermon at a service just after the explosion of the shuttle over Texas. He made the argument that God does not exist to lift our hand for us when we need to lift it. He does not tell us or control what we do. He is merely an onlooker, someone who we can look up to for confirmation. good post.
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