Free Will – Journey from absolute control to reality based on investigation & observation

'Brain activity starts hundreds of milliseconds before we make a choice to perform an action'

This was an observation from the famous experiment conducted by Benjamin Libet, and successfully repeated many times after, by numerous researchers. The experiment recorded brain activity before the individual made a conscious decision to act, giving insights into the process and triggering new thoughts in our understanding of free will.

Free will, or the illusion of it, has been a topic of great philosophical discussions combined with metaphysics and science. Let’s examine some arguments for and against it, before forming a more concrete notion.

Against free will –

• Deterministic world view – Outcomes are already decided based on causal laws. Whatever we might have done, outcome would have been the same and based on how things are at present, future outcome will also be only one. It is a closed deterministic world.

• Theistic – God knows everything. Since God already knows, things are pre-determined, thus, there is no free will.

• Law of Karma – What we have done earlier impacts us and we keep accumulating good or bad karma, as the case may be. And these accumulations keep rolling over from previous life to this and further on.

• Psychologic determinism – Our environment and external factors play a part in our behavior and outcomes.

In favor of free will –

• Indeterminism – Not all outcomes can be predicted with absolute certainty. There is an element of randomness. This school of though is influenced by quantum mechanics as well.

• Compelled versus non-compelled contrast – We know when we are being forced to act in a certain manner. It occurs in both personal and professional lives. But it is very clear to us when we are being compelled versus not being compelled. So, there must be free will.

• Ethical appraisal – We appreciate certain acts and condemn some. This is because someone knowingly did something good or bad. They acted out of their free will. Person could have acted either way but choose to do the right thing.

• The argument itself – While presenting arguments both for and against free will, I am appealing to your free will, to decide on your own, for yourself. You are free to decide either way.

THOUGHTS & ACTIONS

Philosopher and author Sam Harris gives a thought experiment: Think the name of any city in the world. Whatever the answer you came up with is not important, but what’s key is how you came up with that name. Typically, few names popped up in your mind or just one name came up. The observation here is –

• For argument’s sake, if you came up with 3 names of Delhi, Tokyo & Mumbai. Then why the other names didn’t pop-up in your mind? The fact is, you had very little control on what thought bubbled in your mind at that instance. What you did at best, was to choose 1 city from whatever few names came up in your mind.

It’s interesting to see how things are NOT in our full control, when we think they are.

Let’s consider another example: How do we talk to and treat our parents?

In general, the way an American behaves with his parents is different from the way an Indian behaves with his parents. This is apparent. Again, the general feeling is we are free to behave how we want, but still these behavioral patterns emerge, based on our conditioning, which tell we don’t behave as freely as we think we do.

The fun fact is, most of the “free-willed” Indians behave in a similar manner, and majority of the “free-willed” Americans behave in their own similar way, due to social & cultural conditioning.

CHILDREN: EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENT & FREE WILL

Parents want to give a good upbringing to their children. Because it’s believed (and correctly so, with enough evidence), that external factors, to a large extent, do shape a human being. Moreover, early years matter more. Socio-cultural milieu makes huge impact on children.

One of the most prominent minds of his time, Bertrand Russel, in his book ‘Education and the social order’, argues on how the various factors like religion, class, competition impact education and shape individuals and citizens.

The above arguments point to the fact that we acknowledge how high an impact the external environment has, in shaping us, and eventually, our actions. Imagine if we leave all children to their “free will”.

JUDICIAL / LAW

The unstated tenet of judicial system is people have free will. They act on their own. What they commit, is on their own. There are exceptions, like acting in self-defense. But that apart, people are held accountable for their actions. Punishment is decided per what they committed.

But here again, the system does acknowledge and makes exception for conditions which can be proved to be beyond control. As per Section 84 of the Indian Penal Code (Act of a person of unsound mind): Nothing is an offence which is done by a person who, at the time of doing it, by reason of unsoundness of mind, is incapable of knowing the nature of the act, or that he is doing what is either wrong or contrary to law.

PSYCHOPATHS, SOCIOPATHS

In case of people who have anti-social behavior, if we travel back in their timeline, there would be some trigger in their life (probably early part) which made them how they are. Or maybe, they were just hard wired that way, and thus we have symptoms of psychopathy in some children as well, who don’t show empathy & remorse.

Now some actions cannot be condoned, and the actor needs to be constrained in prison, sometimes forever, or even needs to be put to death. But what’s noteworthy here is, acknowledging the fact that there are causes behind how people are / how they behave. Though it is easier said than done, especially when one is the unfortunate victim.

Interestingly, many have argued to include psychopathy in the definition of section 84, as it is a mental disorder condition. Other also acknowledge these mental conditions.

Scottish Law commission’s view on psychopathy: “Because of the psychological make-up of the accused he has difficulties, not shared by the ordinary person, in complying with the requirements of the law.”

According to a study published by Vanderbilt University (US): “The brains of psychopaths appear to be wired to keep seeking a reward at any cost...”. It further states: “Consistent with what we thought, we found people with high levels of psychopathic traits had almost four times the amount of dopamine released in response to amphetamine.”

All these strongly suggest there is more to what we think we know.

CONSCIOUSNESS

So, what about us being conscious beings? Our consciousness is also constantly getting shaped by multiple external factors and agents. It is possible to clear the consciousness of these layers and layers of accumulations but it’s very tough and will take mental training of highest order. It will be akin to attaining absolute freedom, because any less, we will be slaves to causality. Indian thought schools also propagate complete freedom, instead of free will.

MESSAGE

For children, they are better off without any discussion on this. The topic, instead of evoking empathy for others, can also have a very opposite impact on them. We don’t want to kill or even taper down their exploratory spirits. It will be detrimental to their grown as individuals.

For adults also, it is necessary that the arguments are understood in the right spirit: Having empathy for people. Reducing retribution. Building an environment where we steer the society collectively in the right direction. As you sow, so shall you reap. But we have the huge power to sow, so let’s use it wisely.

A man said once: "I will get what’s written in my destiny, why should I put in effort.”

Other man replied: “What if it’s written in your destiny that you will only get when you put in effort.”

This idea here is not to propose that all our choices are pre-determined. But to appreciate the fact that we all are affected by multiple external factors and most of those are not even in our control. Have empathy. Acknowledge other views. Provoke a thought to learn more about ourselves.

IN CONCLUSION

Free will is like giving playdough to children in a room and providing them some tools and molds. Within those constraints, they choose to create their own art form – which in turn depends on what they have seen and experienced so far and how their internal inclination is.

There is no absolute free will. However, there are choices we make within the constraints we have, to do what we want. But the irony is, what we want is just an amalgamation of what we have seen, heard or experienced. There are those who are able to break all the shackles and be truly free, but they are, exceptional and rare to find.

A VISUAL REPRESENTATION | SUMMARY