Over the next few days, I shall take an in-depth look at the philosophical question of free will vs. determinism to ask how just free we really are – what's been decided for us in advance, and whether we can influence outcomes. This is a topic about which I have written over the years, and looking back, I can see that my thinking is getting sharper.
We tend to think we have free will...
"I shape the way my life goes. It's the decisions I take that determine what happens to me. Accepting fate is fatalism – the mindset of a loser. I'm not a pinball bounced about a pinball machine by random forces. I am full in control of my destiny. It is I that pushes the world around, not the world that pushes me around."
I'd take a guess that this is how most Western people think. Priding themselves on their rational thought and determination, they subconsciously dismiss all the external factors that have shaped the course of their lives. It is the Western way to pride ourselves on our individual autonomy, our agency, our willpower.
But free will is not the same as willpower. Long have I pondered over the question of whether willpower is a question of nature or nurture. Is there a gene for determination? Being weak-willed can mean being prone to procrastination, laziness, attention deficit, inability to defer gratification, or just generally taking the path of least resistance through life. Not just putting things off, but not doing them altogether.
I know I have to do my seven set of exercises a day. Generally, I do them. Friends and family may call my logging of these into a spreadsheet a bit obsessive, but it works. 'Beat last year' is the target. But procrastination is hard to fight; the exercises – which could be done over the course of the day – tend to get bunched up in the evening. Overall, however, I am doing more exercises as I get older, hopefully for a good health outcome. Willpower is saying to myself "Drop and give me 25!" and then doing 25 perfectly executed press-ups. (Done them. Just to prove to myself that I'm not bullshitting.)
But free will is a higher-level thing than mere willpower. Why am I the way I am? Why am I here? Not just as in 'here and alive on Planet Earth' but 'sitting at this table in a small house on an acre of land in rural Mazovia, writing this Lenten blog'. There are factors beyond my control that have brought me here, shaped my biology, my character and my decision-making processes.
American neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky argues that our choices are determined by our genetics, experience, and environment. In his book, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will Prof Sapolsky suggests that the common use of the term 'free will' is erroneous. He argues that our nature and nurture have all but squeezed agency out of our lives; accident of birth, upbringing, hormones, psychiatric predisposition, all steer our choices. The flipside of the 'we have no free will' argument is that criminals are merely victims of circumstances.
Looking at the arc of my life so far, I can see the influences behind my big choices. Influences such as pure fate; random happenings that would conspire to shape significant events further on up the road, and decisions taken because of the way I happen to be.
And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"
– Once in a Lifetime, Talking Heads (1980)
So - is our fate entirely out of our hands? More tomorrow.
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